2025 Baseball Season

[MDspider8]

Looks like we have a 2025 baseball schedule on the website - hasn't officially been announced by the athletic department yet, but should be coming soon. Some highlights:

• Season-opening home series vs. Navy (Feb 14 - Feb 16).
• Second-weekend home series vs. Fairfield (Feb 21-23), followed by a mid-week @ NC State (2/25).
• We're hosting the "Central Virginia Challenge" again this year, and the field is MUCH better. We play Penn State (2/28), Boston College (3/1), and Toledo (3/2).
• Strangely, we host BC again on 3/5. Looks like they're doing a long trip to VA, playing W&M/UR/VCU/UR/UVA all in a row.
• Mid-week @ UVA on 3/19.
• End of conference play should be rather tough. Our last 4 weekends are vs. SLU, @ Dayton, @ VCU, vs. Davidson.

2025 Baseball Schedule - University of Richmond Athletics

The official 2025 Baseball schedule for the University of Richmond Spiders

richmondspiders.com

 

[Wood Hall]

I got an update from coach Mik over Thanksgiving.

Greetings from U of R!

Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays to you and yours. I hope you’ve had a great fall. It’s difficult to fathom that our fall semester is almost finished. The boys will head to their respective Thanksgiving destinations in a bit over a week, and when they return, there will be one week of classes and then finals to wrap up the semester.

Our fall has been great. The new turf is a HUGE upgrade and the padding around the field really makes the place look like Big League. I feel great about our team and the improvement we’ve made since last fall. We are better in every facet of the game. The fellas have worked hard on the field and in the weight room, and we have a great chemistry and culture in the locker room. February 14, 2025, which is opening day for us at Pitt Field, can’t come fast enough!

We have a few guys injured, but all of them have a good prognosis of being back and healthy for the start of the season. Keep an eye out on social media and RichmondSpiders.com for the schedule to be released soon. We’ve got a big slate of home games, and we go on the road to play a few “big-name” schools in the non-conference schedule. The Atlantic 10 voted to play 10 conference weekends from now on so we’ll have 30 total conference games. Fifteen of those will be at Pitt Field. In total, we’ll play nine weekends at our favorite field!!

I wanted to give you a quick update on Mark Budzinski ‘95, who is the newest member of the Anne Arundel (MD) County Sports Hall of Fame! Congrats to Budz! Bill Belichick was lucky enough to be inducted in the same year as Mark.

Congratulations are also in order for Sean Ryan ’96, whose Benedictine team won the State Championship back in the spring. I saw them play a few times and Sean’s done a great job with those boys! He has some very good players. Sean continues to be a great teammate and friend to Budz.

 

[MDspider8]

I'm cautiously optimisitic on our outlook this season. The A10 should be wide open after a lot of roster and coaching turnover last year - only 7/26 players from the 2024 all-conference teams will be back this season, and VCU/Dayton/SLU all lost a lot of talent to graduation/portal. I don't think there's a clear favorite and wouldn't be surprised if we're picked in the top-4 of the conference in the preseason poll.

Our offense should be really good - Whitley, Bernstein, Jaffe, Pacheco, Palmieri and co. should make for a great A10 lineup. We won't have a pitcher as good as Roche was last year, but should have more depth on the mound overall.

Let's see what Aoki can get done in year 2.

 

[MDspider8]

One thing to watch while we're still waiting on a 2025 roster to be posted - starting 12/1/25, we'll have to be at the roster limit of 34 players. A lot of schools are starting to cut kids this winter to try to get ahead of this.

We have 44 players on our current fall roster (according to the Fall World series rosters they posted a few months ago), and have 15 HS Seniors committed for 2026 per Perfect Game. There's gonna have to be a lot of roster cutting/transfers out this offseason to get us down to the 34 limit, even with the graduating seniors. Wonder if any of that will happen before this season starts. Otherwise, it'll be a huge shift next summer/fall.

 

[MDspider8]

The team officially announced we will have 14 incoming freshmen for next season - 10 pitchers and 4 position players. The only player I don't see on here who had committed to us is OF Patrick Colbert from Georgetown Prep, so not sure what happened there.

Spider Baseball Adds 14 Newcomers to 2025-26 Roster - University of Richmond Athletics

RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond baseball head coach Mik Aoki has announced the addition of 14 newcomers to the 2025-26 roster. The future Spiders head to Richmond f...

richmondspiders.com

 

[spiderstudent17]

With 34 man baseball rosters being announced, 14 incoming high school recruits seems like a lot.

 

[MDspider8]

We finally have a 2025 roster - I count 43 players on the squad.

36 days until opening day vs. Navy. Let's go!

2025 Baseball Roster - University of Richmond Athletics

The official 2025 Baseball Roster for the University of Richmond Spiders

richmondspiders.com

 

[spiderstudent17]

We finally have a 2025 roster - I count 43 players on the squad.

36 days until opening day vs. Navy. Let's go!

2025 Baseball Roster - University of Richmond Athletics

The official 2025 Baseball Roster for the University of Richmond Spiders

richmondspiders.com

I can’t tell which individuals are transfers. Any idea of how many we have this year?

 

[MDspider8]

I can’t tell which individuals are transfers. Any idea of how many we have this year?

8 transfers:

- Mauricio Rodriguez (P) - Rice
- Cole Palmeri (C) - Colby
- Brady O'Brien (IF) - Colby
- Tyler Rigot (P) - Susquehanna
- Chayse Gruber (P) - Neosho County CC
- Ryan Bilka (P) - Wagner
- PJ Hughes (IF) - Army, but wasn't on their 2024 baseball roster
- Sawyer Duarte (P) - Middlebury

 

[spiderstudent17]

8 transfers:

- Mauricio Rodriguez (P) - Rice
- Cole Palmeri (C) - Colby
- Brady O'Brien (IF) - Colby
- Tyler Rigot (P) - Susquehanna
- Chayse Gruber (P) - Neosho County CC
- Ryan Bilka (P) - Wagner
- PJ Hughes (IF) - Army, but wasn't on their 2024 baseball roster
- Sawyer Duarte (P) - Middlebury

Thanks! Looks like we’re focusing on getting transfers looking to play up a level. Served us well last year. Any you think that could make an immediate impact?

 

[MDspider8]

Thanks! Looks like we’re focusing on getting transfers looking to play up a level. Served us well last year. Any you think that could make an immediate impact?

Yep - I think Palmeri will be our starting C and a key middle of the order bat for us. He was NESCAC POY, All-American, and put up an unreal 1.397 OPS last year. I also think O'Brien has a good chance to start in the IF for us, as he has solid career numbers and our 2B spot should be open with Topolski graduating.

On the mound, I'm expecting Bilka to be a weekend starter for us - had a 3.19 ERA and good K numbers after being in Wagner's rotation last year. Rigot and Rodriguez should also make an impact, not sure if they will start some games for us or be bullpen arms. Both have posted good K/9 ratios but didn't have huge workloads last year. Not sure what to expect from Gruber...I can't imagine he faced good competition in community college, but he regulary posted 6/7 inning starts for them and had a 3.33 ERA on the season.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Yep - I think Palmeri will be our starting C and a key middle of the order bat for us. He was NESCAC POY, All-American, and put up an unreal 1.397 OPS last year. I also think O'Brien has a good chance to start in the IF for us, as he has solid career numbers and our 2B spot should be open with Topolski graduating.

On the mound, I'm expecting Bilka to be a weekend starter for us - had a 3.19 ERA and good K numbers after being in Wagner's rotation last year. Rigot and Rodriguez should also make an impact, not sure if they will start some games for us or be bullpen arms. Both have posted good K/9 ratios but didn't have huge workloads last year. Not sure what to expect from Gruber...I can't imagine he faced good competition in community college, but he regulary posted 6/7 inning starts for them and had a 3.33 ERA on the season.

Thanks MD. This was very helpful!