Mike Mergenthaler had three hits and drove in three runs, while Matt Trent fired the final 4.2 innings of stellar relief as Richmond won a see-saw battle at Dayton, 8-6, in the nightcap of a doubleheader Sunday. The Flyers won Sunday’s first game 15-5.
With the Sunday split, the Spiders moved to 19-15-2 overall and 6-3 in the Atlantic 10, while the Flyers sit at 20-17, 6-3.
The nightcap, which featured four ties and five lead changes, swung the Spiders direction for the final time in decisive sixth inning. With Dayton leading 5-4, Bret Williams launched a lead-off solo shot over the left-field wall for the tie and Mike Small followed later with a sacrifice fly that put the Spiders on top 6-5.
Richmond tacked on insurance runs in support of Trent as Billy Barber ripped an RBI single in the seventh inning to score Mergenthaler and Matt Zink singled home JB Gadd in the eighth.
Trent scattered five hits after reliving starter Anthony Cafagna with one out and runners at the corners in the fifth. He allowed a double that gave Dayton a 5-4 lead, but was virtually lights out after that.
After yielding a sixth-inning single to Bobby Glover, Trent retired eight straight batters to allow the Spiders to take the 8-5 lead to the ninth, before encountering his first spot of trouble.
Dayton, which rallied for a 10-5 win Friday and exploded for nine runs in the eighth inning to win Sunday’s first game 15-5, loaded the bases with one out in ninth. But Trent worked a sacrifice fly that made the score 8-6 for the second out and got Mike Coughlin swinging for the final out.
Mergenthaler finished three-for-five with three RBI and scored twice, while Zink, Barber, Derek Boliek and Small each had two of the Spiders’ 14 hits.
Trent scattered five hits, allowed just one run with no walks and five strikeouts to pick up his first win of the season (1-0). Dayton starter Mike Hauschild took the loss and fell to 6-4.
In the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader, Richmond rallied with five runs to pull within 6-5 in the seventh, but Dayton pulled away to take a 15-5 victory.
Small had two hits and scored two runs for the Spiders, who scored twice in the sixth and three times in seventh after Dayton opened a 6-0 lead.
But as quickly as the Spiders pulled within striking distance, the Flyers distanced themselves. Dayton pounded out eight hits and scored times during a nine-run uprising in the eighth inning to put the game on ice.
Brian Blasik, who drilled a three-run triple off the wall in the eighth, finished the game five-for-six with five RBI and three runs.
Small scored from third on a wild pitch, after reaching on a base hit and moving to third on a Mergenthaler single. Williams later scored Mergenthaler to make it 6-2.
Zink and Phil Ruzbarsky drove in runs in the seventh as the Spiders cut the margin to 6-5 in the seventh.
Freshman lefty Chris Bates was tagged the loss (1-2) for Richmond, allowing six runs over five innings of work. Dayton starter Burney Mitchem fired six innings with three runs and eight strikeouts to pick up the win (3-2). Tim Bury worked the final three innings for the save.
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