Box Score RICHMOND, VA. - The Tribe scored 11 runs on 11 hits, but it was the unearned run that undid things for the Green and Gold in a 14-11 extra-inning loss. The Tribe led nearly all the way, but Jake Elbeery's three-run walk-off homer ended William & Mary's three-game winning streak.
The Tribe scored at least 10 runs for the fourth straight game, the first time scoring double-digits in the first four games of the season since 2004. However, four unearned runs on three errors were the difference in the ballgame.
For the fourth straight game,
Ben Williamson led off the game with a hit, this time a one-hop shot off the wall in right center for a triple.
Jack Cone would follow with a well-struck line drive to deep right that would be caught but drive in Williamson.
The Spiders responded with a pair of unearned runs highlighted by a Dominic Toso single through the right side of the infield, ending the frame at 2-1 Richmond. In the next half inning,
Mark Trotta and
Nate Goranson hit back to back singles to leadoff the second, and Trotta scored on
Tyler Solomon's RBI single to right, but the Tribe would leave the bases loaded after tying up the game.
After a scoreless second from Lovasz,
David Hogarth would start a third inning rally with an infield single deep in the six-hole.
Matt Thomas would follow by crushing a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left center to give the Tribe a 4-2 lead. Trotta would walk and once again score on a Solomon single to right and Goranson came around on a passed ball making it a 6-2 game.
In the fourth, Richmond would take advantage of a one-out error as Will Gersky sent a two-run shot over the wall in left to make it a 6-4 ballgame, but Lovasz would work out of the inning to keep it a two-run game.
The Tribe would answer with another two-out rally going in the fifth as
Phil Conti walked with a pair down and the bases empty. Williamson followed with a single and Conti scored on a Cone single to right center. Hogarth's second hit of the game brought in Williamson making it an 8-4 ballgame.
In the bottom half of the fifth, Richmond once again cut into the Tribe lead with a two-spot on three hits to make it an 8-6 game. After a scoreless William & Mary sixth, Gersky hit a solo shot to make it a one run 8-7 game.
The Tribe would find separation again in the seventh, plating a pair of runs to make it a three-run game. Williamson, Hogarth, and Thomas would all walk to load the bases and Trotta would rip a 1-0 pitch into right to score two making it 10-7.
Two runs on a pair of hits, a walk, and a hit batsmen for Richmond once again cut it to a one-run game 10-9, but
Matt Howat entered with the bases loaded to end the threat. The Tribe would get one back in the eighth as Williamson scored on another Cone sacrifice fly.
Richmond once again made it a one-run ballgame scoring an unearned run in the eighth an another in the ninth setting up for Elbeery's three-run homer in the tenth.
Up Next: The Tribe will travel to Cary, N.C. for a split doubleheader with Penn State and Maine on Sunday.
