RICHMOND, Va. – Ignited by a slew of strong offensive showings, including a perfect 5-for-5 from Johnny Hipsman, fifth-seeded Richmond survived the first elimination contest of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship against No. 7 overall Rhode Island, ousting the Rams behind a final 13-3 margin late Wednesday evening at The Diamond.
With the victory, the Spiders set up a Thursday afternoon battle with No. 1 Saint Joseph's in yet-another elimination game, first pitch slated for 3:00 pm.
Richmond bolted out ahead early on, utilizing a Johnny Hipsman RBI double plus a two-run inside-the-park homer from Alden Mathes to secure a 3-0 edge in the third. Rhody, however, responded in kind during the fourth, generating nearly the exact same sequence – first an RBI double followed by a two-run dinger – off the bats of Eric Genther and Mark Coley to knot the score back at three apiece.
Moving into the later innings, however, the Spider bats remained hot, as a Hipsman solo bomb reclaimed the UR lead in the fifth before a pair of singles from Jordan Jaffe and Christian Beal accounted for another three total runs, vaulting Richmond to a 7-3 advantage.
A productive eighth all but sealed the victory with five more runs crossing before Mikey Kluska tacked on a final insurance score in the ninth via triple down the right-field line.
Overall, Hipsman paced UR behind a brilliant 5-for-5 day, notching two RBI and three runs scored, while three additional Spiders posted multi-hit games as well. Mathes led the way with three RBI of his own.
On the mound, Kyle Subers tossed 3.2 frames before taking his leave due to an injury, setting up Esteban Rodriguez (W, 5-2) to clinch the eventual W. The sophomore composed an elite outing across 5.1 innings, setting down 12 batters on strikes while surrendering just four hits for one earned run.
Trystan Levesque (L, 6-5) put together 5.0 innings of work for the Rams, giving up just one earned run on eight hits while striking out five. A combination of four relievers – Jeremy Urena, Zach Fernandez, Broc French and Brandon Hsu – completed the contest for Rhode Island, allowing a joint nine earned runs on eight hits.