Following a 6-1 Owls’ loss to open the three-game series on Friday, Temple (18-24, 7-10 Atlantic 10) defeated Richmond (27-17, 10-7 A-10) 2-1 on Saturday in Richmond.
For Temple on Saturday, pitching was the key to success. Behind a strong outing from sophomore starting pitcher Eric Peterson, the Owls were able to earn their seventh conference win of the season and coach Ryan Wheeler’s second win against his former team.
For the second straight day the Owls found themselves trailing 1-0 to the Spiders. After three scoreless innings for Temple and Richmond, the Spiders scored their first run as a wild pitch from Peterson allowed freshman right fielder Tanner Stanley to score after reaching base on a leadoff single.
Although Temple only scored in one inning, the two-run fifth inning was enough offense to hold off Richmond. A one-out single to left center from senior left fielder Allen Stiles allowed junior first baseman Derek Peterson to score after reaching on a leadoff single to left. The second run of the inning came as a sacrifice fly from sophomore shortstop Nick Lustrino scored Stiles, giving the Owls the 2-1 lead.
In Peterson’s final 3.1 innings pitched, the right-hander allowed one hit and set the Spiders down 1-2-3 in two of his final three innings pitched. Freshman left-handed pitcher Connor Staskey replaced Peterson with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning following a leadoff walk and sacrifice bunt.
Peterson finished the day with 7.1 innings pitched allowing three hits, one run while recording three walks and seven strikeouts en route to his sixth win of the season.
After Staskey silenced the Spiders for the final two outs of the eighth inning, redshirt-junior pitcher Ryan Kuehn entered in the bottom of the ninth inning and shutdown Richmond 1-2-3 while adding one strikeout in his fifth save of the season.
With the win on Saturday, the Owls improve to 18-24 on the season and 8-14 as the visiting team.
Temple will be back in action on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to complete the three-game series against Richmond. The Owls will be in search of their second conference series win of 2013.
John Murrow can be reached at john.murrow@temple.edu or Twitter @JohnMurrow12.
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