Phillips improves to 8-0 as Bonnies continue hot Atlantic 10 play with 7-2 win over Richmond

Courtesy of GoBonnies.com

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – As has been the case many times this season, junior Aaron Phillips nearly did it all for the St. Bonaventure baseball team Friday afternoon, posting three hits and driving in three runs while earning his eighth win of the year on the mound in a 7-2 triumph over Richmond.

For the Bonnies, it marked the 11th win in their past 13 Atlantic 10 games as they improved to 23-16 overall and 13-6 in conference play.

St. Bonaventure struck with two runs in the third when Phillips gave the hosts an early lead following a double to the fence in left center, plating both Ryan MacCarrick and Taishi Terashima. David Hollins added a run by leading off the third with a no-doubt home run well beyond the left field fence for a 3-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Phillips was cruising on the hill. He did not allow a hit through four innings while facing the minimum.

Richmond got on the board in the fifth with a leadoff double and a pair of ground outs making it a 3-1 score.

Bona got that run back and added an extra in the home half of the inning. David Vaccarodoubled home a run before Hollins created another with a sacrifice fly for a four-run advantage.

The Spiders (14-29, 5-11) had a chance to claw back into the game after loading the bases twice in the sixth, but had to settle for just one run.

In the late innings, St. Bonaventure played tack-on with a throwing error from the Spiders allowing a run to cross in the seventh. Later, Phillips recorded his third RBI of the day with a run-scoring fielder’s choice off a well-hit ball behind second in the eighth inning.

Phillips kept his season record perfect by moving to 8-0 after working seven innings and striking out five. Brandon Schlimm came on in relief and tossed two scoreless frames to lock down the win.

MacCarrick, Hollins, T.J. Baker and Jared Baldinelli all had two hits apiece as the Bonnies cranked out 13 on the day against Richmond pitching.

The two teams are set for a noon start Saturday afternoon.

GAME NOTES

• Phillips improved to 8-0 on the season, tying for second in the program’s modern day record book for wins in a single season. He moves into a tie with John Zinnicker (2006) and Dennis Sherba (2009) and is just one off Mike Gray’s record of nine wins set in 1999.
• Entering Friday, just four pitchers in all of Division I had at least eight victories while also being undefeated – Steven Gingery of Texas Tech (8-0), J.B. Bukauskas of North Carolina (8-0), Ryan Valdes of South Florida (9-0) and Jake Thompson of Oregon State (9-0).
• Taishi Terashima walked twice and scored two runs.
• Hollins lifted his season batting average to .273 with a pair of hits while his homer was the 21st of the year for the Bonnies as a team. It is the most home runs in a season for the team since the 2010 campaign which was before the shift to the BBCOR bat.
• Brandon Schlimm has allowed just one run in 16.1 innings of work since returning from an injury that cost him nearly a month of action. He has also worked 13 scoreless A-10 innings during that span.
• St. Bonaventure has its most Atlantic 10 wins since also having 13 in 2011.
• Winners of 11 of their last 13 A-10 games, the Bonnies have put together their most productive stretch of conference games since winning 13 of 15 A-10 contests at the end of the 2006 season, a year the program record of 18 conference victories was set.