VMI baseball falls at Richmond, 15-3

An eight-run seventh inning turned the game around and helped the Richmond Spiders defeat the VMI Keydets, 15-3, in NCAA baseball action Tuesday at Pitt Field in Richmond.

The Keydets (5-4) had led for the early innings until a UR (7-1) two-run sixth inning had made it a 3-2 game. VMI tied it with a run in the seventh, but an eight-run bottom half for UR that included four Keydet errors put the game out of reach.

Taylor Edens, pitching for the first time in nine days, took the loss (0-1) after giving up six runs – five earned – over three innings. Jacob Lamb gave up an unearned run in three relief innings to get the win for UR and move to 1-0 on the year.

UR jumped ahead in the first, as a single by Michael Morman scored D.J. Lee for a 1-0 Spider lead. The Keydets got that run right back in the second, when Peyton Maddox led off the inning with a solo home run to knot the contest at 1. It was Maddox’s second home run in as many games, after not having previously hit one in his brief collegiate career.

VMI then added on in the fourth on a RBI double by Nathan Eaton and carried that 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth. A single by catcher Kyle Adams tied the game, and an error by Eaton allowed the go-ahead run to score as the Spiders took a 3-2 lead.

The Keydets tied the game in the seventh, when Collin Fleischer doubled with one out and moved to third on a throwing error by Adams. Maddox then got him home with a ground ball for a 3-3 tie, but the Spiders took full advantage of four Keydet errors behind three VMI pitchers to plate eight runs and pull away.

Richmond added four more markers in the bottom of the eighth to account for the final margin.

Neither starter figured in the decision, as Jared Silva allowed one run over three innings for VMI and Peter Bovenzi gave up two runs in four innings for the Spiders.

Fleischer and Eaton had two hits apiece for the Keydets, but David Geary saw his season-opening eight-game hitting streak come to an end.

UR was paced by Morman’s 5 for 5, three-RBI day.

VMI baseball will return to action Wednesday, when the Keydets play host to Longwood at Gray-Minor Stadium. Action gets underway at 4 p.m.