UR shells Quinnipiac

The Richmond baseball team scored 17 unanswered runs, pounded out 11 extra-base hits and got a dominating relief appearance from junior Alex Maffett, rolling to a 17-4 victory over Quinnipiac Sunday at Pitt Field.

Matt Zink and Bret Williams each had four hits and Bryan Conway launched his first collegiate home run, helping the Spiders unleash the frustration of back-to-back close loses to the Bobcats in the first two games of the series.

The 17 runs and 19 hits were both season-highs for Richmond, who improved to 5-10-2 overall, while Quinnipiac, which won Friday’s game in extra innings 6-5 and Saturday’s game 6-4, fell to 4-2.

The Spiders blew the game open with an eight-run, six-hit uprising in the fourth inning, but Maffett’s effectiveness out of the bullpen was the difference in the game.

After Quinnipiac scored four times on no hits in the first inning and chasing sophomore starter Shawn O’Neill early, Maffett restored order and fired scoreless baseball with three hits over 5.2 innings to claim his first win (1-2).

O’Neill was making an emergency start for the Spiders as sophomore Jacob Mayers was unavailable due to a hand injury suffered in Saturday’s game.

Zink dealt the big blow in the decisive fourth with a bases-clearing three-run double to left field. The junior finished the game four-for-six with a double, a triple, a stolen base, three RBI and three runs. Williams, who had an RBI single in the third, an RBI double in the fourth and a sac fly in the eight, finished four-for-five with three RBI.

Mike Mergenthaler, Robby Massar, Phil Ruzbarsky, JB Gadd and Nick Poulous also collected two hits each for Richmond.

Massar doubled in the first inning to score Mergenthaler, who tripled, and Richmond took the lead for good with a four-run third inning thanks to another run-scoring double from Massar, and RBI singles from Williams and Gadd.

Quinnipiac starter George Dummar did not make it through the fourth inning and was tagged the loss (1-1). The Bobcats managed just four runs and six hits in the game.