RICHMOND, Va. – Beck Milner and Colton Shaw both homered in a 9-6 season-opening victory at Richmond on Friday afternoon to mark head coach Brian Hamm's first victory at the helm of the Bulldogs.  
 
Reid Easterly (1-0) allowed two runs over five innings in relief to earn the victory and the Yale offense pounded out 12 hits, drew eight walks and stole seven bases in the contest.    The Yale bats got going early.
 
In the first inning, Milner blasted a three-run homer in his first official collegiate at bat to give Yale the early lead.  The Bulldogs scored two more in the third when Jeff Pierantoni drew a bases-loaded hit by pitch and Jake Williams followed with a RBI single to make it 5-3.
 
AJ Gaich broke a 5-5 tie with a double to right field to score Pierantoni.  In the eighth, Shaw added a two-run homer for insurance runs to give Yale an 8-5 edge.
 
Milner, Pierantoni, Shaw and Ben Metzner all had two hits apiece for Yale. 
 
Easterly came on to relieve starter Jimmy Chatfield and struck out four while allowing five hits.   Tate Evans pitched a scoreless ninth and struck out two batters to earn his first collegiate save. 
 
The Bulldogs return to action tomorrow at 1 p.m. for game two of the series.