Owls Jump Ahead In The Fifth Inning And Hang On For 2-1 Win Over Richmond

Saturday, May 4

Richmond, VA

2:00 p.m.

Temple University

18-24, 0

Richmond

27-17, 0

Temple

Richmond

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Owls Jump Ahead In The Fifth Inning And Hang On For 2-1 Win Over Richmond

5.4.13 | Baseball

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va.— After being held hitless for the first four innings, the Owls' offense came to life and pounded four hits off of Richmond starter Andrew Blum in the fifth inning, helping them jump ahead of the Spiders and win the middle game of the three-game set by a final of 2-1 at Pitt Field.

Sophomore Eric Peterson bounced back from last week's performance with a solid outing to pick up his sixth win of the season. The Owls' righty went 7.1 innings of work, through which he struck out seven Richmond hitters and allowed just the one run on three hits and three walks. In the fifth inning, Peterson fanned away Cory Moheit for the 100th strikeout of his Temple career. Blum took his first loss of the season for Richmond, while redshirt junior Ryan Kuehn notched his fifth save of the year and has now held opponents scoreless in his last seven appearances and in nine of his last 10.

Junior Derek Peterson led the Owls with a 2-for-4 day along with getting the fifth inning rally started and scoring the game-tying run. Senior Allen Stiles was the first of three-straight Tempe hits in the inning, helping him have a hand in both of the Owls' runs. Stiles knocked in Peterson with an RBI base hit and later came around to score the go-ahead run on sophomore Nick Lustrino's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

Richmond broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning. Tanner Stanley led off the inning with single into right field and later moved to second on a balk, before being pushed to third on a groundout. With runners on the corners and one out, it appeared as if Tyler Beckwith was hit by a pitch, but instead was ruled a live ball, allowing Stanley to rush home on the wild pitch to give UR the lead.

Freshman Connor Staskey came on in relief for Eric Peterson in the middle of the eighth inning. With a man already at second base and one out, Staskey walked the first two hitters he faced to load the bases for Richmond. The rookie reliever got out of the threat unharmed when Adam Forrer came to the plate and pounded a ball off the mound, perfectly toward Lustrino, who flipped to senior Elijah Yarborough covering second, before tossing over to Peterson at first for the inning-ending double play.

Freshman Jimmy Kerrigan, who was holding the team's longest hitting streak this season at 13 consecutive games, was held hitless in an 0-for-4 day

With the win, Temple boosts its record to 18-24 on the year and improved to 7-13 in Atlantic 10 play. The seventh victory in conference play matches the team's win-total from last season. Temple and Richmond will close out the series with the rubber match on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at Pitt Field. Redshirt senior Dan Moller will start for the Owls and will be opposed by Richmond's Jacob Mayers.