RICHMOND, Va. (March 2, 2024) – It was a good, old-fashioned pitcher's duel on Saturday afternoon at Pitt Field, as the Sacred Heart University baseball team and Richmond combined for just 10 hits on the day. Unfortunately for the Pioneers, their bats came up empty in a 2-0 loss to the Spiders, wasting five scoreless inning and seven strikeouts from first-year right-hander Elijah Foster (Plainfield, N.J.). Aaron Whitley cracked a solo home run in the seventh, which stood as the winning run for Richmond on the second day of the Central Virginia Classic.
 
Neither team could get a run across the plate through the first six innings on a gloomy Saturday in the River City. Richmond (4-6) put two on with a single and an error in the first, but Foster struck out Chase Topolski to end the early threat. The Pios had two in scoring position in the third, after a walk, a bunt single and a groundout, but left-hander Brian Reinke left them both out there by getting Gavin Donohue (Melrose, Mass.) on a sharp comebacker to the mound.
 
Topolski left runners at the corners in the third, as he flew out to center. SHU (0-8) left the bases full in the fourth, as Joey Skarad (Stamford, Conn.) struck out swinging. Richmond left a pair in scoring position in the fifth, as Foster capped his outing by getting Jake Elbeery to fly out to center.
 
Foster would wind up throwing 84 pitches (47 strikes) over five scoreless innings of work. He surrendered three hits and struck out seven, but also walked three and hit a pair, unnecessarily putting himself under duress and inflating his pitch count.
 
For his part, it was six scoreless innings for Reinke, who also did not factor in the decision after a 91-pitch (50 strikes) outing. He allowed just two hits and struck out 10, but also put himself in more trouble than he needed to by walking three and hitting a batter.
 
Richmond finally broke through in the last of the seventh. Connor Larson led off with a high fly ball deep down the left-field line and was robbed of extra bases, if not a home run, as Zack Kovalchik (Archbald, Pa.) made a leaping catch at the wall for the first out. Unfortunately for SHU, right-hander David Aufiero's (Glen Head, N.Y.) next pitch caught too much of the plate as well, and Whitley deposited it on the other side of the fence in right-center for a solo home run, his first of the season.
 
The Spiders added an insurance run in the eighth to create the 2-0 final. RJ Rickabaugh led off, cranked a triple to right-center and then came in to score on a sacrifice fly to left by Jackson Kraemer.
 
Peter Link (Holmes, N.Y.) led off the top of the ninth with a double to right-center, but left-hander Cole Hentschel struck out the next three Pios to close things out and nail down his first save of the season.
 
Right-hander Logan Ymker (1-0) won in relief for Richmond. He worked the seventh and eighth innings, allowed one hit, walked one and struck out two.
 
Aufiero (0-2) was charged with both runs over 2.2 innings of work on the mound for SHU, allowed three hits, walked one, hit three batters and struck out one. Though they were not particularly costly on Saturday, free bases continued to be a problem for Pioneer pitching, which issued four walks and hit five batters.
 
SHU wraps up the Central Virginia Classic on Sunday at William & Mary. First pitch is 1 p.m. at Plumeri Park in Williamsburg, Va.