Richmond Sends Riverside Home

Adam Tidball and Ben Zeskind each drove in two runs and Jason Bolinski threw a six-hitter as Richmond defeated UC Riverside, 8-1, on Saturday night to advance to today’s championship round of the NCAA baseball regional at Stanford.

Bryan Pritz, Vito Chiaravalloti and Bobby LeNoir each had three hits as the Spiders (48-14) avenged Friday’s opening-round loss to Riverside (41-17). Richmond will meet Stanford for the regional title.

Tony Festa had two hits for the Highlanders, who in their second year in Division I were playing in their first regional. Riverside had lost to Stanford, 13-6, earlier in the day.

Richmond, which won for the sixth time in seven games, advanced to its second consecutive regional final. The Spiders won the Winston-Salem Regional last year but lost a best-of-three Super Regional to Nebraska.

Bolinski (10-1) gave up a leadoff double to Brian Wahlbrink but not much else, recording his sixth complete game. He struck out five and walked two.

Riverside starter Julio Fernandez (5-4) gave up season highs in runs (seven) and hits (11) in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.

Richmond scored four runs in the first inning, two on Tidball’s double. David Reaver also drove in a run, and Pritz scored on a wild pitch.

Tony Festa drove in Riverside’s run in the first on a groundout.