LEXINGTON, Va.? Senior Robert Crumpler brought home three runs, including two on his 11th home run of the season, as VMI defeated Richmond for the sixth-straight meeting by taking a 5-1 decision on Wednesday evening at Gray-Minor Stadium. The win moves the Keydets to 28-10 on the year, while the Spiders fall to 22-16.
Keydet starter Chris Duty (4-2) pieced together his finest outing in over a month, allowing only four hits and a single run on Joe Mahoney's sixth inning solo home run, as the freshman hurler struck out eight Spiders in recording the win. Senior Corey Bachman came on to record his fourth save of the season, allowing only two baserunners while pitching the final 2.1 innings to lock up the team's 20th home win of the year.
“I was really proud of how Chris Duty threw tonight, especially seeing how he has struggled in his last couple of starts,” said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. “It was great to see him command all three of his pitches tonight. I can't speak highly enough of the way that Corey Bachman has been pitching, coming in and giving us zeroes when we've needed them. I thought that a number of guys had great at bats for us tonight, in particular the middle of our lineup with Thane Smith, Robert Crumpler and Eddie Van Es. Mike Roberts came up with a big two-out double in the fifth inning, and Crumpler had that huge home run to advance the lead late. I'm still not satisfied with the number of men we're leaving on base; we just need one more hit here and there to really make teams pay, and the guys know that. But I was proud of the way that our guys came out and competed against an in-state opponent.”
While Crumpler was brining home three of the team's five runs, Van Es was setting a career high with four hits, including a pair of doubles, however scored his lone run of the game on Roberts' fifth inning double off the wall. Smith accounted for the team's other RBI, doubling home Brian Sandridge with his third-inning double, as the Keydets stranded 12 runners in the contest.
Spider leadoff man Benji Marshall accounted for two of the team's five hits off of VMI pitching, collecting singles in the first and seventh innings. But both times, he was left stranded, as the Spiders left nine men on base. Taking the loss for the visitors was freshman Matt Trent (1-4), who surrendered the first runs of the contest in the third inning, as he came on in relief of starter Alex Hale. The Spiders used five hurlers in all, with Marc Terranova working the longest, allowing two runs in 2.2 innings of work.
Sandridge led off the third inning with a single up the middle, before moving up on Jordan Ballard's sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Smith broke the scoreless tie with his double to deep centerfield, then came around to score as Crumpler followed with his 20th double of the season down the leftfield-line.
The Keydets made it a 3-0 game when Roberts drilled the eighth pitch of his at bat against Josh Horn off the left-centerfield wall to plate Van Es. Mahoney's one-out blast cut the advantage to 3-1 in the top of the sixth, however the Spiders would pull no closer, despite putting a pair of baserunners on in both the seventh and eighth innings. Crumpler then delivered with a two-out, two-run homer to leftfield, bringing the final margin to 5-1.
The Keydets are next in action this weekend, as they travel to Conway, S.C. to take on #20 Coastal Carolina in a Big South Conference series, beginning on Friday. The Spiders travel to Pittsburgh to take on Duquesne in an Atlantic 10 series this weekend, with game one also scheduled for Friday afternoon.
