Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Spreads Ball in 7-4 Win Over Rio Grande
4/30/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Marshall Spreads Ball in 7-4 Win Over Rio Grande
4/30/2003
- Box Score
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. ? Nine Marshall pitchers each contributed one inning of work to guide the Thundering Herd to a comeback win over Rio Grande in a baseball matinee on Wednesday at University Heights.
Two freshman started the game on the mound, with Rio Grande?s Kevin Hale facing Herd lefty Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, Pa.). No runs would score in the first inning, which would mark the end of Koutsavlis? day as MU began preparing arms for the final two conference series the next two weekends.
Inning two saw Marshall?s Mike Marchyshyn (Markham, Ont.) surrender one run on a passed ball for a 1-0 Herd deficit. Right-hander Patrick Molinari (Plainfield, Ill.) took the ball in the third inning and gave up a Marcus Goolsby two-run home run over the left field fence. Gabe DeVono had earlier scored when Lance Davis struck an RBI sacrifice fly to right field, giving Rio Grande (22-20, 7-9 AMC) a short lived 4-0 lead.
Marshall (18-26-1, 8-12 MAC) charged back in its half of the third inning, leading off with four straight singles. Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, Fla.) drove in Roddy Stieger (Westchester, Ohio) for the Thundering Herd?s first run of the day, followed by a Josh McConnell (Phenix City, Ala.) run on a wild pitch. Corie O?Bryan (Frederick, Md.) and Matt LaFleur (Chesapeake, Va.) both registered RBI groundouts to tie the game up at 4-4.
A thirty minute rain delay ensued with two outs in the top of the fourth inning with David Goodson (Akron, Ohio) on the mound for Marshall. Goodson came back after the delay to quickly register the third out.
Mike Koitsopoulos (Markham, Ont.) led off the fourth with his first career triple, but was left stranded on third base.
Rick Suter (St. Clairsville, Ohio) registered a quick 1-2-3 outing in his one inning of pitching in the top of the fifth. Marshall took advantage and took its first lead of the day when O?Bryan and LaFleur scored on a pair of RBIs from Koitsopoulos and Gregg Hiller (Greenville, Ohio) to give Marshall a 6-4 lead through five innings of play.
Suter (1-5) notched his first victory of 2003, striking out one URG hitter in the process.
Chris Cummings (Huntington, W.Va.), Andrew Davis (Charleston, W.Va.) and Scott Henning (Wilmington, Del.) all faced the minimum number of hitters in their respective inning pitched.
"We wanted to allow our guys to get an inning in each to tune up for this weekend's conference series," Marshall pitching coach Tom Carty said. "It worked out well, we got a lot of 1-2-3 innings."
Marshall pitchers retired nine straight Redmen to close the game.
Marshall would add an insurance run in the eighth inning on a Francois Larmore (Magnolia, N.J.) RBI double that plated Adam Frederick (Franklin, Pa.) for the decisive 7-4 edge.
Larmore went 2-for-2 with one RBI and one run scored.
Chris Meadows (Huntington, W.Va.) sat the Redmen down in order in the ninth to record his fifth save of 2003, which places him in a three-way tie for most saves in a season in school history. Meadows also picked up his seventh career save to tie him with Tony Peterson (1988-89) for second on the career saves list. Tim Fanning (1994-95) holds the career mark with nine saves.
The win improves Marshall's overall win total from last season (17) as the Herd prepares to travel to Miami (Ohio) for an important four-game Mid-American Conference series with the RedHawks (25-17-1, 12-4 MAC) beginning Friday at 3 p.m. at McKie Field at Hayden Park.
