Richmond puts nine on the board in the first, holds on for 9-2 win over Longwood

The Richmond Spiders scored all nine of their runs in the first inning to defeat the Longwood Lancers 9-2 on Tuesday.

Will Gersky led the Spiders (13-12) offensively as his first inning grand slam opened-up the scoring for Richmond and helped push them to their first win in nine games. Gersky finished with one hit, one run and four RBI.

Longwood (13-16) scored in the first inning when Jack Schnell hit a ground rule double over the right center fence that saw Hayden Harris score.

Richmond scored all nine of their runs in the bottom half of the first inning. After back-to-back walks, Dominic Toso had an infield single to load the bases.

Johnny Hipsman then took a four pitch walk to tie the game, and Gersky hit a grand slam to open-up the game. The bases were loaded two more times in the inning, and singles from Jake Elbeery and Dominic Toso, as well as a Sprague-Lott walk gave the Spiders an eight-run lead going into the second.

The Lancers would tally one more after a Hayden Harris single brought home Keondre Shelton who had doubled prior to Harris’ at-bat.

The final seven frames were scoreless from both sides as the score of this game was decided by the second inning.

Kevin Gunn started on the mound for the Lancers and he couldn’t escape the first inning. Gunn surrendered eight runs on three hits and five walks before Jack Lamb relieved him with one out remaining in the first. Sean Gibbons, Logan Berrier and Michael Tolson all were used in relief after Lamb and gave up a combined one hit during the rest of the game.

“We are still a work in progress,” Longwood coach Chad Oxendine said. “We have to get back to the basics- executing and competing! Longwood baseball is made of grinders and we have to continue to fight.”

Longwood returns to action tomorrow when they travel to Durham, N.C., for another midweek showdown with ACC foe Duke.