2024 Baseball Season

[SFspidur]

GW falls to St. Joe's, 9–0. Up to the minute standings for the top 7:

SLU 15–6
Dayton 13–8
VCU 13–8
Richmond 13–9
St. Joe's 12–10
GW 12–10
UMass 11–10

Given VCU is short a game on their schedule from a rainout against Dayton, we do need a sweep to finish ahead of them.

Dayton is of course also short a game because of that. They're currently trailing URI 7–3 in the 3rd in game two of that series.

 

[MDspider8]

There will now be a doubleheader tomorrow as Saturday's game has been pushed up due to rain in the forecast. First pitch at noon, second game will be 40 minutes after game 1 is over.

 

[SFspidur]

Dayton/URI suspended due to darkness in the middle of the 8th with the Rams leading, 11–10. They'll finish it at 10am tomorrow, with their finale following at noon.

 

[spiderstudent17]

After having gone through most of my first Atlantic 10 season, I am convinced more than ever that we can build a program that is a perennial powerhouse. We must recruit the right kids, which we will, and we then need to develop them, which we will.

Another critical component why I believe so strongly that we can be an Atlantic 10 power is you. No successful program can be built without alignment from the President to the Athletics Director to the coaches, players, and alumni base. It is impossible to build a program that sustains excellence without top down alignment and we have it.

I like this snippet from Aoki's email. I really hope that we continue to build baseball to become a team that can make the NCAAs once every 4-5 years at least. Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year. I am curious when the next steps in renovations to our baseball field will take place. These three things are needed for coach's to maximize their recruiting pitch to come here 1) Scholarships 2) Renovations 3) Additional facilities (batting cages, clubhouse, etc)

Here's the elevate campaign from 2017: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2017/6/24/ElevateCampaign.pdf

It looks like we've done the majority on this list. Renovating the seating behind home plate to the grandstands listed in the PDF will be very nice. Getting lights will be big too.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

GW - SJU will also be a doubleheader today, starting at 11:30 AM. So, after today's games, the bracket should be mostly solidified.

 

[SFspidur]

 

[32counter]

I like this snippet from Aoki's email. I really hope that we continue to build baseball to become a team that can make the NCAAs once every 4-5 years at least. Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year. I am curious when the next steps in renovations to our baseball field will take place. These three things are needed for coach's to maximize their recruiting pitch to come here 1) Scholarships 2) Renovations 3) Additional facilities (batting cages, clubhouse, etc)

Here's the elevate campaign from 2017: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2017/6/24/ElevateCampaign.pdf

It looks like we've done the majority on this list. Renovating the seating behind home plate to the grandstands listed in the PDF will be very nice. Getting lights will be big too.

“Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year”

His top players are from graduate transfers D3 Rochester and D3 Hamilton.

 

[SFspidur]

I misread the URI/Dayton press release last night...the completion of game two followed by game three is tomorrow, not today.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

“Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year”

His top players are from graduate transfers D3 Rochester and D3 Hamilton.

While yes the top impact transfers have been D3 guys, we also had the following guys come in:

• Michael Elko(Northwestern)
• Jason Shockley(Rutgers)
• RJ Rickabaugh (Notre Dame)
• Jackson Kraemer (Wake Forest)

All these guys are Juniors or younger, so we'll see if their playing time grows next year or the years to come.

 

[32counter]

 

[32counter]

 

[spiderstudent17]

“Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year”

His top players are from graduate transfers D3 Rochester and D3 Hamilton.

That’s a good point. I guess I should say, Aoki seems like he is a good recruiter, period. What I like about going after P5 school recruits specifically, is the mentality that Richmond is a good place for otherwise highly touted High School recruits to showcase their talent here, if it didn’t work out at their first school. At the end of the day, talent is talent. There are plenty of kids who are very talented at lower D1 or D3 level who will excel at our level or even higher. We should certainly recruit them too.

Let’s build up our facilities and give Coach Aoki the resources he needs to win the A10. With all who we lost this year, I’d say Aoki exceeded expectations year 1

 

[Wood Hall]

“Aoki seems to be a good recruiter and he brought some recruits from P5 programs this year”

His top players are from graduate transfers D3 Rochester and D3 Hamilton.

Then he obviously has an eye for underappreciated talent as well. I think that's a positive, no?

 

[SFspidur]

Recruiting discussions aside, there's a game going on. VCU up 7–3 in the 6th.

Roche only lasted one inning and got tagged for three runs. Hinchliffe came in and gave up two more in the second. Sannes came in for the 4th, walked a guy, committed an error on a pickoff attempt, and intentionally walked another before Ymker came in and got the final two outs. But then Ymker gave up a couple more runs in the 5th on back-to-back doubles to the open the inning.

Spider offense has been quiet with only three hits, but have been able to put three runs on the board thanks to some walks helping to get guys on base.

 

[SFspidur]

Ugh, two walks and a wild pitch put Spiders on second and third with one out, but we failed to get anyone home...pop out, fly out.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Spider hitting is 3-20 today (.150) with 5 walks, 1-7 with RISP (.143).

We will have the top of the order in the bottom of the 7th, but need to keep this a 4 run game.

 

[SFspidur]

8–4 heading to the 9th, not looking good.

Edit: 3-run homer makes it 11–4, really not looking good.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Unfortunately, this is the type of game we can expect in a condensed A10 tournament if the starters are going to give you less than 3 innings. I'd like to think Aoki gave Roche and Hinchliffe short leashes in order to conserve them for Tuesday/Wednesday now that the postseason spot was locked up.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

On a positive note, Whitely starts the 9th with a double and now is 2-5 on the day, and his average is creeping towards .400 (currently at .390).

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Final score 4-11. Spiders go quietly after the Whitley double.

 

[SFspidur]

Guaranteed to finish behind VCU now, so no better than 3rd seed.

SLU 16–6
VCU 14–8
Dayton 13–8
UR 13–10
GW 13–10 (we have tiebreaker over them, 3–0)
St. Joe's 12–11
UMass 11–11 (URI and Fordham also in the mix for the final spot, I believe)

 

[SFspidur]

VCU strikes first with a run in the top of the second, but the Spiders respond with the help of a walk, a HBP, a wild pitch, and a throwing error to put three on the board in the bottom of the inning.

We're once again pitching by committee...Topolski pitched the first, while Clifton came in for the second is out there again for the third.

 

[SFspidur]

Spiders fall, 12–4. Currently in a three-way tie for 4th with St. Joe’s and GW.

 

[SFspidur]

URI beats Dayton in the completion of the suspended game, 16–10.

The top three seeds are set: #1 SLU, #2 VCU, #3 Dayton. If UMass beats SLU this afternoon, they can make it a 4-way tie at 13–11 for the remaining spots in the tournament, and I don't have the energy to work out the tiebreaker scenarios because there's no way we all played each other during the regular season so it goes to more involved math.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

UMass leads SLU 5-2 at the end of 8.

Based on a PDF I found online, the tiebreakers for 3 or more teams are as follows:

• Head-to-head competition of tied teams. If head-to-head competition did not occur for all teams involved in the tie, skip to 2.
  • We did not play SJU
• Composite winning percentage of tied teams versus all common Conference opponents.
  • Common Conference opponents: GMU, SBU, URI
    • Richmond Record: 2-1 GMU, 2-1 SBU, 2-1 URI --> 6-3 Total
    • George Washington Record: 1-2 GMU, 3-0 SBU, 2-1 URI --> 6-3 Total
    • Saint Joeseph's Record: 3-0 GMU, 2-1 SBU, 1-2 URI --> 6-3 Total
    • UMass Record: 2-1 GMU, 3-0 SBU, 1-2 URI --> 6-3 Total
• Each team’s winning percentage versus the highest common Conference opponent in the standings and continuing down through the lowest common opponent in the standings, if necessary.
  • Highest common opponent in the standings: Rhode Island
    • That would bring us and GW to a tie for 4th, which then I think would give us 4th based on H2H? Not really sure exactly the order of operations. Though there is not much of a difference between 4th and 5th seed besides Home/Away in Game 1.
  • Second Highest: SBU
    • That would give UMass 6th and SJU 7th

Don't hate me if I did not do this correctly, but my projected Bracket:
#1 SLU, #2 VCU, #3 Dayton, #4 Richmond, #5 George Washington, #6 UMass, #7 SJU

First game would be against GW at 11AM on Tuesday.

 

[SFspidur]

Spiders indeed earn the 4-seed and face #5 GW. We swept them in the regular season, so let’s keep it going.

 

[Wood Hall]

A-10 tournament info:

Four Seed Spider Baseball to Face Five Seed GW in First Round of A-10 Tournament - University of Richmond Athletics

A-10 Tournament Bracket | Tournament Central | Capital One Park Information

richmondspiders.com

 

[TobiasCatsup]

GW's top starter, Michael Foltz pitched 7.2 innings on Saturday 5/17. In 5 conference starts, he pitched 31 innings, and leads the conference in ERA (2.61) and batting average against (.186). He must have been injured when we faced GW, since he did not appear in the series.

 

[MDspider8]

Might be reading too much into this, but noticed in this picture and article that Bernstein and Whitley did not partcipate in the senior day ceremony this past weekend. Is it possible they both have one more year of eligibility? I didn't think so, because they both appeared in 4 total seasons in D3, so would only have one additional year granted from the shortened 2020 season.

I did just notice Bernstein and Hamilton U. only played 12 total games in 2021, so maybe he was granted a second additional year of eligibility based on that? Whitley and Rochester played in 34 games in 2021, so that wouldn't make sense for him.

Anybody know for sure? Other grad student transfers like Topolski, Roche, and Ymker participated, so was curious to find out.

Spider Baseball Drops Senior Day Doubleheader to VCU - University of Richmond Athletics

RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Richmond dropped both games of Friday's Atlantic 10 Conference doubleheader to crosstown rival VCU at Pitt Field. The Rams took

richmondspiders.com

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Gameday! (4) Richmond vs (5) George Washington at 11AM EST. This game, and all others in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, will be played at Capital One Park in Tysons, Va.

The Richmond Baseball X account used a picture of Kyle Roche in their Gameday post, which hints that he is the starter? He seemed to be on a pitch count Friday so that makes sense.

GW starter Michael Foltz took home A10 Pitcher of the Week honors, after he pitched 7.2 innings with 8 strikeouts en route to a crucial GW win over the weekend.

If it is worth highlighting one hitter in the GW lineup, look no further than their Team MVP, Ellis Schwartz. From the post: ".358 Batting Average, .463 On-Base Percentage, 68 Total Hits, 42 Runs Scored, 41 RBI, 25 Stolen Bases." We held him mostly at bay in our April series (he hit 3-13 with a home run and 2 RBIs), but he has done nothing but hit all season in the middle of the GW lineup.

 

[MDspider8]

Based on the Live Stats Link, it'll be Roche vs. GW starter Teddy Brennan. The LHP has solid numbers on the year and threw 7 scoreless innings against us on 4/13.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Since his start against us, his season ERA went from 2.82 to 3.91, but the H2H stats do make me nervous.

Roche confirmed will be out starter according to the link MDspider shared above. In the batting order, it's is the usual names in the lineup, Aoki will turn to Zach Lass behind the plate, batting 5th. He started in all three games in the VCU series, and hit 3-12 with 2 RBIs.

 

[MDspider8]

In classic A10 baseball fashion, the game has started and the ESPN+ stream isn't working. Sweet.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

From my sources at the field, Roche's changeup is looking sharp. Quick inning in the Top of the 1st.

 

[SFspidur]

Video all glitchy and live stats not working either?

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Allegedly, this is the Side Arm Stats link, which is also not working. Really bad stuff.

 

[TobiasCatsup]

Spiders go quickly in the Bottom of the 1st. From what I was able to see: Whitley K, Jaffee GO, Bernstein GO.

 

[SFspidur]

Live stats just came up. Now fix the video.

 

[SFspidur]

GW solo homer by Young.

Or so live stats says, video is now completely dead aside from some very 80s strobe effects.

Edit: Ooh, we've progressed the ESPN+ technical difficulties looping video.

And we've got video!

 

[SFspidur]

GW got a second run in the top of the 2nd, but the Spiders are taking advantage of a Topolski single, three consecutive walks, and a Whitley single to take a 3–2 lead, all with two outs.