Richmond grand slam forces third game
 
Lincoln -- Vito Chiaravalloti belted a one-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning to snap a 2-2 tie to give the Richmond Spiders a 6-2 win over the Nebraska baseball team and force a decisive game three in the NCAA Super Regional at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park in Lincoln on Saturday afternoon.

Chiaravalloti smashed a 2-2 pitch from Nebraska reliever Steve Hale over the left field berm to help Richmond even the best-of-three Super Regional series with the Huskers at one win apiece while improving to 53-12 on the season. The Huskers slipped to 46-19 overall, while seeing their 10-game home winning streak come to an end.

The dramatic home run hushed Nebraska�s raucus school-record crowd of 8,481 and made a winner of Spider starter Thomas Martin, who improved to 8-0 on the year by tossing Richmond�s second consecutive complete game in the series.

Martin, a sophomore left-hander, handcuffed the Huskers through the first six innings, holding Nebraska to just two hits while Richmond carried a 2-0 lead into the seventh. Nebraska finally got to Martin in the seventh on Jeff Blevins� two-run homer to left.

After Blevins� sixth homer of the year and second of the NCAA Tournament, Martin settled back down and retired the final eight Huskers in order to end a 102-pitch performance. Martin surrendered just four hits and walked only the Husker leadoff hitter Jeff Leise in the top of the first inning, while striking out eight. The four hits were a season low for the Huskers.

Chiaravalloti�s 23rd home run of the season also spoiled a strong outing by freshman Brian Duensing, who held the Spiders in check for five innings in relief of starter Aaron Marsden. Duensing allowed just three hits in five innings, after coming on with one out, a run in and a runner on second base in the bottom of the fourth. Duensing left the runner stranded at second to keep the Huskers within striking distance at 2-0.

Despite the strong outing, Duensing fell to 6-2 on the year by giving up a leadoff single to A.J. Board to start the ninth. Bryan Pritz followed with a sacrifice bunt, to set up an intentional walk to David Reaver to give NU chance at an inning-ending double play. But Duensing uncorked a wild pitch on his second pitch to Matt Craig allowing the runners to move up to second and third. Duensing then intentionally walked Craig to load the bases, before Hale came on in relief and surrendered the home run.

Richmond jumped to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after a leadoff walk to Pritz was followed by consecutive one-out singles by Craig and Chiaravalloti. The Spiders added a run in the fourth inning on Board�s one-out RBI double to left scored Chris Dolan, who had singled to start the rally. Dolan�s base hit was followed by a sacrifice bunt by Bobby LeNoir who was tagged out by Husker first baseman Matt Hopper to advance Dolan to second base.

Hopper, Nebraska�s cleanup hitter, immediately grabbed his left hand in pain after making the tag. Hopper left the game with a strained thumb and is questionable for Sunday�s game.

Josh Birmingham replaced Hopper in the fourth, and started NU�s rally in the seventh with a one-out single, before Blevins homered to tie the score. Joe Simokaitis and Jed Morris were the only other Huskers to manage hits on the day.

Chiaravalotti finished the day 3-for-5 with one run scored and five RBIs to lead the Spiders, while Board added three hits and an RBI to pace a 10-hit Richmond attack. Dolan added two hits, while Craig and Adam Tidball both pitched in singles for the Spiders.

Junior left-hander Jamie Rodrigue (7-3, 4.03 ERA) is expected to start for the Huskers, while Richmond will counter with junior right-hander Mike McGirr (12-1, 3.76 ERA) on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.

Nebraska postgame notes
• The Hawks Field at Haymarket Park crowd of 8,481 was the largest home crowd to witness a Nebraska baseball game. Saturday�s attendance surpassed the 8,474 fans who attended Friday�s game. It was also the largest crowd in Haymarket Park history for either a professional or college game.
• The loss was Nebraska�s first home loss in 10 NCAA Tournament games. Nebraska is 9-1 at home and 4-1 at Hawks Field. NU is 6-0 at home in NCAA Regional play and 3-1 at home in Super Regional action.
• The Spiders� run in the first inning was the second time in 28 games that the Huskers have allowed a first-inning run dating back to April 19.
• The loss marked the ninth time this season that the Huskers had lost a game on the opponent�s last at bat.
• Nebraska�s loss to Richmond was just the second loss in the last 17 games for the Huskers and first home loss in 11 games, dating back to a 9-4 loss to Wichita State on April 30.
• The four hits by Nebraska was its lowest total of the season (5 vs. Texas Tech, March 23; 5 at Texas, May 4).
• Nebraska has scored at least one run in 262 straight games, the second-longest active streak in college baseball.
• Husker reliever Steve Hale allowed his first home since April 28 (Kansas), a span of 17.2 innings. It was just the third home run allowed by Hale this season.
• Surrendering three earned runs in the bottom of the ninth, Brian Duensing had his streak of 11.2 scoreless innings of relief snapped. Duensing allowed just six hits during that span.
• With an infield single in the fourth inning, Jed Morris extended his hitting streak to a career-high 18 games. Morris did have his streak of eight consecutive games with at least one RBI snapped.
• Morris� hit was his 100th hit of the season. He becomes just the seventh Husker to record 100 or more hits in a single season.
• Will Bolt went hitless for the first time in 20 games, watching his career-high 19-game hitting streak come to an end.
• Matt Hopper had his 12-game hitting streak come to an end. Hopper had just two at bats before leaving the game with a strained left thumb with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning.
• Vito Chiaravalloti�s ninth-inning grand slam was his 23rd home run of the season, which is one shy of Richmond�s school record. Chiaravalloti increased his season RBI total to 86, surpassing the previous school record of 85.

Postgame quotes

Nebraska head coach Dave Van Horn
On the game
�Give credit to Richmond, they outplayed us today. They outhit us, and they outpitched us. They held on and put themselves in position to win in the bottom of the ninth. They got what we were looking for in the ninth, a lead-off single. When you get one of those, you�ve got a chance. It seems like their pitcher did a great job of keeping our leadoff man off all day. We haven�t much production from the top of our order the first two games. It has been tough to score runs. I though their pitcher did a great job. Now we get to play a third game tomorrow.�

On the momentum swinging Richmond�s way
�I don�t know. It is hard to say. I guess you could have asked me that last night, if the momentum would have swung our way. I would have just said that we had an advantage, now it is even, so I don't think so. There is only a few teams playing at this time of year, and we feel very fortunate to be here. We still have a chance, and so do they. Let�s play the third game and whoever wins is moving on and the other guys are checking it in and that is the way this game is.�

On Richmond starter Thomas Martin
�He threw a lot of first pitch strikes. He threw the ball in and out a lot and tried to throw a slider down and in. We knew he was going to try and do that. We hit some balls hard and it seemed like a couple of times right at people. We were thinking we needed to get something to go our way and it really didn�t.�

On what he told the team
�There is nothing to talk about. They have been here before. It is almost like, here we go, it is 1-1 going into Sunday�s game. You try to learn how to win these games by playing conference games. It is going to be a battle tomorrow, it is going to be a great ballgame.�

On the experience factor
�I don�t think it is going to hurt us that is for sure. We feel like we have been in these positions before. Sometimes the breaks go your way and sometimes they don�t. You just have to go get it done and go from there. We have to hit the baseball - bottom line. We haven�t hit the baseball.�

NU third baseman Jeff Blevins
On his home run
�(Josh) Birmingham got us going in the inning, a little positive flow. The previous two at bats, I�ve been getting my pitch to hit, I�ve just been fouling it off. Finally, he layed it up there, his fastball, and I hit it out.�

Nebraska pitcher Brian Dunensing
On his pitching
�It felt just like regionals. My job was to keep them from scoring and give my team a chance to win. That is what I tried to do, and I guess in the end, I just didn�t get it done.�

Nebraska infielder Josh Birmingham
On his single to lead off the seventh inning
�It was about the third time I have come out of the bullpen and got to play. I think the coaches have prepared me well enough to play whenever they need me to go in. I was just going in hoping I could help out some way. I happened to get a hit.�

Richmond head coach Ron Atkins
Opening statement
�It was quite a ballgame. The fans were treated to another excellent ballgame between two good college baseball teams. This game could have gone either way. We jumped on them 1-0 and got the second run, and we felt a little better. I was really worried because we kept leaving runners in scoring position. You can�t do that against a real good ball club. That worried me all the way through the game. When (Jeff) Blevins hit his home run, I thought it was coming back to haunt you a little bit. Like I said yesterday, this team finds ways to win. I think that�s exactly what happened today. We got a great pitching performance from Thomas Martin. Outstanding pitching. He held a good team down and made one bad pitch. A good team is going to take advantage of it and they hit the two-run homer. What can you say about Vito Chiaravalloti. He has carried us all year - in the first half of the year, in the middle half of the year and in the end of the year. It was a great clutch performance.�

On the two-run homer by Nebraska�s Jeff Blevins
�One thing, if you watch us play all year, there is no quit in this team. It�s not in their vocabulary. They don�t quit. No matter how far we get down, they�ve done it all year long, and they�ll continue to do it. You may beat us, but we�re not going to quit. I still felt good about that because Thomas (Martin) was still throwing the ball well. He kept them off balance and made some great pitches.�

Richmond first baseman Vito Chiaravalloti
On the last at-bat
�I had a lot of confidence in my swing today. I was swinging the bat really well. My hands were loose. I knew that if he threw a strike that I was going to be in good shape. I just got it up in the air.�

On tomorrow�s game
�When we hit the field tomorrow, Nebraska is going to come out with everything they have. There is no momentum swinging our way tomorrow. They�re going to have 9,000 people on their side. I think tomorrow you�re going to be in for a great game.�

On the crowd
�I appreciate the crowd. I think there are good people here in Lincoln. It�s a fun place to play baseball. When I came to the plate and they announced my name, I could kind of hear the crowd a little bit. I like that. It�s good that they�re in the game at all times. We�re going to come out tomorrow and we�re going to have a great game for this crowd and for college baseball.�

Richmond starting pitcher Thomas Martin
On the importance of getting the two outs after Nebraska�s home run
�I have been giving up some home runs this year, which I�m not used to. I think just giving some up early it was important for me to get those two outs and give my team the confidence that we still had a chance. I thought we still had a chance. I never doubted it. I think it was really big that I came out and got those next two outs and got us out of the inning.�

On his shaky start (throwing six straight balls to open the game)
�It�s the most people I have ever thrown in front of so it was just one of those things where I was uptight. I wasn�t really thinking about what I needed to be doing. I was just taking it all in I guess. Once I got used to it and learned how to block out the crowd, everything fell into place.�

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.