The Spiders baseball team defeated the College of William and Mary 14-11 in extra innings in their rainy home opener yesterday.
The 2022 season is off to an exciting start for the Spiders as they begin their season 3-1.
Freshman Jake Elbeery broke an 11-11 tie after he rocked a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to secure the Spider’s win.
“Just a great win,” head coach Tracy Woodson said. “We persevered, man, we were down the entire game, we kept coming back ... that’s the character and stuff of this team, and I really believe that this year.”
Both the Spiders and Tribe offense started out hot with the Tribe scoring a run in the first inning. UR responded with grad student Christian Beal and sophomore Alden Mathes reaching home on hits from sophomore Jared Sprague-Lott and senior Dom Toso to end the inning.
The Tribe fought back and scored a run in the top of the second and another four runs in the top of the third.
Starting pitcher junior Jacob Marcus went for two-plus innings before left-handed pitcher Jesse Heikkinen, a graduate student, entered the game in the third inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, transfer junior Will Gersky hit the first home run of his UR career, bringing Toso home to add two runs to the board.
Heikkinen was subbed after he allowed three runs in 2-plus innings when pitcher sophomore Vincent Corso then took the mound.
At the bottom of the fifth, Beal, Mathes and Toso, again, created action with a single from Beal, double from Mathes and a single from Toso. The Spiders were able to bring two runs with Beal and Mathes crossing home plate, making the score 8-6 in the Tribe’s favor.
At the bottom of the sixth inning, Gersky slammed another homer to left field to bring the Spiders within one run of the Tribe.
Three runs were scored by the Tribe in the top of the seventh but not without a response from UR. The Spiders also batted in another run to bring the score to 10-8.
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First-year student Rob Ready made his UR debut as he took the mound in the ninth inning. He was able to retire the side with a scoreless top of the inning.
The Spiders and the Tribe continued to battle back and forth until the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Beal hit a single that brought Papantonis across the plate, tying the score at 11-11 and taking the game to extra innings.
Senior pitcher Brenden Argomaniz entered the game at the top of the 10th and retired the side in order to allow the Spiders another chance to win the game.
The bottom of the memorable 10th inning began with Toso hitting a single. Shortly after, the Tribe intentionally walked Gersky. Elbeery came to the plate and slammed a three-run walk-off home run straight to the right-center to secure the 14-11 win for UR.
“I was just looking for something to hit, something down the middle,” said Elbeery in a post-game conference. “I got something good, he threw me a slider ... I was all over it.”
.The Spiders play again at 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 24 against the University of St. Thomas at the Spider’s Pitt Field.
Contact sports writer Lucia Helmers at lucia.helmers@richmond.edu.
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