RICHMOND, Va.- Behind the right arms of Michael Bowman, Ian Casher and Kevin Crum, the VMI baseball team scored their fifth-straight victory against Richmond and tied the best start in school history, claiming a 2-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon at Pitt Field. The win improves the Keydets to 4-1 on the season, while the Spiders fall to 0-4.
With the score tied at one in the top of the eighth inning, senior shortstop Chad Rice hit his first home run of the season, providing the final margin. Rice (2-for-5) was joined by Thane Smith (2-for-4, RBI) and A.J. Yoder (2-for-4) with multiple-hit outings for VMI.
Bowman, making his second start of the season, struck out a career-high eight while working six-plus innings, allowing a lone run on five hits. Casher (1-0), who relieved Bowman in the seventh inning, picked off the go-ahead run at second base to begin his appearance before retiring the next two batters to escape the frame. Crum then set down each of the six batters he faced to collect his third save of the season.
"Today was a great college baseball game," said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. "Both starting pitchers found their rhythm early and really settled in. Bowman reached his pitch count after giving up the back-to-back hits to lead off the seventh inning, but Casher did a fantastic job on an inside move to pick the go-ahead run off at second base. I was overly impressed by how we pitched and caught the baseball today. It's always fun to come down here and play, it almost feels like a home game for us because of the incredible support we always get from our Richmond-area fans."
Freshman Spider starter Matt Zielinski set down each of the Keydets in order the first time through the order, before Rice broke the string with a single to lead off the fourth. But despite putting runners on base in both the fourth and fifth innings, the Keydets were unable to push across a run until the sixth, when junior Shane Geisslinger led off the frame by getting hit by a pitch before swiping his first base of the season. Junior Thane Smith, who went 3-for-4 in Tuesday's contest against Bucknell, plated Geisslinger with a single up the middle, breaking the scoreless tie.
On the other side, Bowman escaped jams in the early innings, as the Spiders put runners on base in each of the first three frames. In the third, the Spiders loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of singles and a walk, before a Bowman struck out UR cleanup hitter Cameron Brown and induced Andrew Justice into an inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play. Bowman then recovered to face the minimum number of batters over the next three innings, before running into trouble in the seventh.
A leadoff triple by Matt McKenna was followed by a Hank Coogan double down the leftfield-line to tie the score, chasing Bowman in favor of Casher. The senior sidearmer picked off Coogan at second base for the first out the inning, before taking care of the Spiders on a groundout and a strikeout.
It didn't take long for VMI to respond, as Rice stroked his his fifth career roundtripper with one out in the eighth inning to give the visitors the 2-1 advantage off of reliever Josh Horn (0-1). Horn was chased from the game after surrendering a single to Smith and hitting Robert Crumpler, while a single by A.J. Yoder greeted new reliever Brian Alas to load the bases. But the Keydets came away empty-handed, as Alas struck out Michael Roberts and got Eddie Van Es to groundout to end the rally.
Crum then entered to slam the door on the Spiders, working a perfect final two innings to score his fifth career save, and third of the season in three appearances.
The Spiders collected only five hits on the afternoon, with the lone extra-base hits coming in back-to-back at bats by McKenna and Coogan. No Spider posted more than one hit on the afternoon.
The win marks the first time in the series, dating back to 1894, that the Keydets have won five in a row against their rivals from the Capital City. The game also marked the ninth straight season the two teams have met, the longest active streak between VMI and any other opponent.
The baseball team returns to action on Friday afternoon, taking on Niagara at Gray-Minor Stadium, the first game of a three-game series at the new facility.
