May 27, 2005
DAYTON, OH - Junior Josh Nestor homered for the second time in as many days and rightfielder Matt Sullivan hit a bases clearing double as Rhode Island moved within one win of its first-ever Atlantic 10 title after defeating Richmond on Friday afternoon, 8-3, at the 2005 Baseball Championship.
Rhode Island (33-19) advances to Saturday's championship round against an opponent to be determined at 12:00p.m. Richmond (22-34) will play at 7:00p.m. this evening against the winner of this afternoon's GW/Dayton contest.
After Spiders starter Ja Jones (3-4) retired the side in order in the first two innings, Nestor led off the top half of the third with his fifth home run of the year. However, Richmond answered right back in the bottom of the third on a two-run double by sophomore third baseman Matt McKenna, scoring Alex Hale and Andrew Justice.
URI then struck for three runs in the fourth as Mike Rainville scored on a ground rule double by Nestor and a two-out single by leftfielder Daryl Holcolmb brought around Nestor and sophomore Dave Savard. Nestor started the sixth inning with his second double of the game and later scored on Sullivan's clutch hit, giving the Rams a 7-2 lead.
"I made some adjustments in my swing last week to shorten things up and it's starting to payoff," said Nestor, who now had 10 doubles on the year.
Meanwhile, junior Zack Zuercher kept Richmond off the scoreboard from the fourth through sixth innings, during which time he retired seven straight batters. Zuercher allowed three runs on eight hits over seven innings with seven strikeouts to earn his sixth win of the year.
"I think Zack toughed himself through those first three innings and Richmond was pumped up," said Rhode Island head coach Frank Leoni.
"Zack made some adjustments, went to some other pitches and to his credit, he reached back when he needed to and got things done."
Jones (3-4) seven runs (four earned) on hits while walking five in 5 1/3 innings. Richmond junior centerfielder Ben Zeskind collected two hits on the afternoon to raise his total to a team-leading 75.
