Spiders At VCU Tuesday Night, Hosting Norfolk State Wednesday In Baseball

Tuesday night's game at The Diamond starts at 6 p.m. and is live on ESPN Radio 950.

Junior Ian Marshall gets the start for Richmond Tuesday night.

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Spiders Welcome Wagner To Pitt Field This Weekend

Eighth Inning Rally Leads Old Dominion Past Richmond

Billy Barber Earns NCBWA National Pitcher Of The Week Honor

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May 5, 2009

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Heading into the home stretch of the 2009 regular-season, the Richmond baseball team heads downtown Tuesday night for a 6 p.m. match-up versus cross-town rival VCU at The Diamond. The Spiders are back home tomorrow, hosting Norfolk State at 3 p.m. in the regular-season home finale.

LIVE IN-GAME LINKS:

Tuesday at VCU: LIVE STATS | LISTEN LIVE

Wednesday vs. Norfolk State: WATCH LIVE | GAMETRACKER

• Richmond kept itself in the thick of the A-10 playoff race thanks to its weekend series victory over Temple (The Owls had entered the weekend in third place in the conference). The Spiders hit three homers and pounded out 16 hits in Friday's 13-10 win, dropped a rain-soaked Saturday game and bounced back to take the series with Sunday's 8-6 victory.

• The Spiders are currently 20-20 overall, 9-12 in the A-10 and sit alone in ninth place with six conference games remaining. Richmond, which is two games back of sixth place, battles seventh-place Fordham (16-29, 10-11) this weekend in the Bronx in a pivotal series for both clubs.

• Freshman LF Phil Ruzbarsky was named the Atlantic 10's Rookie of the Week after batting a team-leading .571 on the weekend. Ruzbarsky launched his first-career homer in Friday's game and his three-run shot in the fifth proved to be the difference in the 13-10 win. He doubled and scored in Saturday's game. Then Sunday, the rookie had two more hits, two walks and a run in the series-clinching victory. He walked a team-leading five times this weekend. For the season, Ruzbarsky is batting .269 overall (.302 in A-10 play with the team's best on-base percentage of .479).

• Freshman Adam McConnell, who swiped his team-leading 27th base of the season Sunday, was hitless in four at-bats to end his 14-game hitting streak. The freshman batted .456 (26-of-57) over the team's longest hitting streak of the season, with two doubles, eight RBI, 13 runs, 11 stolen bases and just two strikeouts. He had eight multi-hit games in that stretch.

• With 27 steals this season, McConnell now leads all freshmen in the NCAA and moved into seventh on the Spiders' single-season list.

• VCU leads the all-time series 40-33 and has won 11-straight over Richmond -- the Spiders' last win was March 13, 2004.