Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The St. Bonaventure University baseball team captured its fifth-straight Atlantic 10 series victory with a 6-5 win over Richmond at Fred Handler Park on Saturday.
Tied 5-5 in the ninth, David Vaccaro worked a bases-loaded walk that allowed Ryan MacCarrick to score and give the Bonnies the walk-off win.
Richmond got on the board first with a double that scored one.
But the Bonnies answered in the bottom half of the frame with a pair of runs that gave them a 2-1 lead. With David Hollins on third and Vaccaro on second, Tommy LaCongo grounded to third to allow Hollins to score, and Taishi Terashima then singled up the middle to score Vaccaro.
The Bona lead would be short-lived, however, as the Spiders knotted it at 2-2 in the top of the third on an RBI single to center.
St. Bonaventure later regained the lead on an eventful fourth inning, scoring three runs.
Hollins led off the frame with a solo home run as he got the best of a 3-2 count and drove it to left field for the first run of the inning.
Vaccaro then reached on an error by the Richmond shortstop, and then moved all the way to third on an error by the first baseman shortly after.
Then, with LaCongo at the plate, Vaccaro broke for home plate and LaCongo laid down a bunt for a suicide squeeze attempt. Vaccaro slid in safely head first, and met LaCongo’s lower body on the slide while still in the batter’s box, potentially beating out the pitch had the bunt not been laid down cleanly.
Terashima later knocked his second hit of the game up the middle, and then came on to score on a double down the left field line by Cole Peterson.
With the Bonnies ahead 5-3 in the top of the sixth, Richmond tied the score once again with a pair of runs. A leadoff home run gave the Spiders their fourth run of the game, and a wild pitch allowed a runner to score from third base to tie it up.
The tie would last into the ninth inning. In the top of the frame, Richmond threatened to take the lead as they had runners on second and third with two outs. But James Wetter induced a ground out to end the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, MacCarrick led off and was hit by a pitch. Aaron Phillips later doubled down the left field line, and MacCarrick moved to third. With two down, Hollins was intentionally walked to set the stage for Vaccaro, who ended up walking on four straight pitches to give the Bonnies the 6-5 walk-off win.
Due to impending weather, Sunday’s series finale has been canceled. The Brown and White will be in action next on Friday as they head to Delaware State for a doubleheader.
GAME NOTES
- With the win, the Bonnies improved to 24-16 and 14-6 in Atlantic 10 action.
- Donovan Moffat came one in relief in the sixth inning for his 26th appearance of the season, a new St. Bonaventure program record.
- Hollins put together another strong performance at the plate this afternoon, going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored to go along with his sixth homer of the season.
- In addition to Hollins’ three hits and Terashima’s two, MacCarrick, Peterson, Phillips and Vaccaro had one apiece to round out the nine Bonnies hits.
- Richmond had 15 hits in this afternoon’s game and left 11 runners on base.
- Peterson and Phillips each had a stolen base.
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