Spider Baseball Rallies Fall Short, Season Ends at A-10 Championship

Thursday, May 21

Tysons, Va.

4 PM

University of Richmond

33-23

#3 VCU

34-22

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
VCU	0	1	2	0	1	0	0	3	0	7	10	1
Richmond	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	4	4	0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Richmond	0	0	0	2	0	0	4	0	0	6	10	4
George Mason	1	2	2	5	1	0	0	0	X	11	13	1

Spider baseball head coach Mik Aoki speaks to the team postgame in the rain

Spider Baseball Rallies Fall Short, Season Ends at A-10 Championship

05/22/2026 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

TYSONS, Va. – The University of Richmond baseball season came to an end Friday, May 22, after the Spiders lost back-to-back decisions at the 2026 Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Championship at Capital One Park.

Richmond finishes the season at 33-24 and 20-10 conference record, collecting a second-straight 30+ win season under the helm of head coach Mik Aoki and a two-seed in the Championship a season after missing the postseason completely.

Two-seed UR fell to three-seed VCU, 7-4, Friday morning after play was resumed in the seventh due to inclement weather on Thursday.

Richmond took an early lead as Michael Elko scored the Spiders first run on a wild pitch. VCU then scored four straight runs before the game was put in a rain delay then suspended.

UR starter Joey Giordano went two and a third of an inning, allowing three runs on one hit and four walks. Chayse Gruber tossed four and two-thirds of an inning, scattering five hits on one run and a walk with a strikeout.

Play resumed with Noah Haught at first, after drawing a walk, and Evan Wilson at the plate with a 3-2 count. Wilson walked and both moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Elko before Dylan Winebrenner hit a three-run home run to make it 4-4.

Justin Gay took the loss, allowing three runs in the top of the eighth on four hits, a walk and a hit batter with a strike out over two innings of work.

With the loss, Richmond had to quickly regroup to face six seed George Mason in the consolation side of the bracket.

Mason jumped on UR starter Jackson Hinchliffe, as he allowed five runs, two earned, on five hits and one hit batter over three innings of action.

Down 5-0 after three, RJ Johnson Jr. hit a two-run home run to cut into the Patriots lead. GMU answered with a five-run inning in the bottom of the fourth to go up 11-2. Chase Topolski and Dominic Ruggiero tossed the fourth, allowing five runs, four earned on three hits, four walks and a wild pitch.

Bijan Anvar tossed three scoreless frames, scattering four hits while striking out three.

With the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Chris Schaller forced in the first run of the frame after getting hit by the pitch. Ryan Recio pushed in another run after he drew a walk and Reid Downs picked up a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to bring in the third run of the frame. Aidan O'Keefe brought in the fourth run with a base hit through the infield to make it 11-6.

The Spiders got hits in the eighth and ninth but were unable to move them past second.