Spider junior starter Ian Marshall pitched seven shutout innings during Richmond’s 27-2 trouncing of the Iona College Gaels at Pitt Field Friday afternoon, moving the baseball team’s record to 6-0.
”It was one of those days when everything seemed to be going right,” coach Mike McQueen said.
During Marshall’s last outing against Niagara University, he ran up the pitch count early. During this game, he proved efficient on the mound, striking out eight, allowing only five hits through seven innings, all in only 89 pitches.
“[Against Niagara] I was wild and wasn’t under control,” Marshall said. “Today, even when I would get behind, they would pop it up. Their mistakes really helped me out today.”
The 27 runs were one shy of a school record set in 1996, when the Spiders scored 28 points against George Washington University. The 6-0 start is the Spiders’ best since 2002, when they opened 10-0.
But the stilted score was a result not only of bad pitching, but poor fielding by The Gaels (0-5), who committed seven errors. The Spiders, meanwhile, had no errors and garnered seven more runs than they had hits, punishing Iona for every mistake.
The Spiders’ offense was overwhelming. Billy Barber hit his second home run of the season, a three-run shot that flew high above the center field wall. Both Ryan Mallory and Pat Sandman hit grand slam home runs.
The Spiders also stole five bases, bringing their season total to 22.
“We put a lot of pressure on them,” McQueen said, referring to the stolen bases. “So, they started throwing balls away, and we took advantage of that. We’ve been working on that all season, even with guys who are not the fastest on the team. [Iona] hasn’t played a lot outdoors this year so they were making mistakes.”
The Gaels starting pitcher, Dylan McCullough, went only 3 1-3 innings, but threw 107 pitches, allowed nine earned runs on six hits and struck out three.
The Spiders play Iona again at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Contact staff writer David Larter at david.larter@richmond.edu
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