March 25, 2006

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - Junior Casey Moore drove in three runs on three hits, including a double and a home run, as Saint Louis cruised to a 12-2 victory over Richmond (6-13, 1-1 A-10) this afternoon at The Billiken Sports Center. Eight of the Billikens' (9-10, 1-1 A-10) nine starters netted at least one hit to back the complete-game outing of freshman pitcher Dave Sever. Sophomore Greg Rodgers tied Moore for game-high honors with three RBI of his own.

The Spiders tallied four of their seven hits in the first inning, but Sever and the Billiken defense limited them to just one run. After a pair of one-out singles, Joe Mahoney drove one through the right side and Alex Wotring looked to score from second but was gunned down by right fielder Mark Hankes. After Andrew Justice plated the run with a single to left, Sever closed out the inning with a Cameron Brown tapper back to the mound.

The SLU offense found its swing in the bottom of the third when Greg Rodgers, who lined one up the middle for the RBI. Tim Landy put the Bills on top for the first time in the series with a single to center that brought Sweeney home from third, and Gilbert Marlowe kept things going with a two-run double to center. Moore made it a 6-1 lead with his two-run home run to left, just the second round-tripper of his career.

With a comfortable lead, Sever went to work in the next two innings, and the Billikens tacked on five more runs in the fifth. Moore picked up his third RBI of the day on a double to center. A pair of walks loaded the bases for SLU and forced the Spiders to go to the bullpen for a second time, calling on senior right-hander Jason Bolinski. Ziggy Moore singled to third, Sweeney drew a bases-loaded walk, and Rodgers plated two more runs with a single up the middle before Bolinski got out of the inning.

The Billikens tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth on Tom Pinnell's single to left center. The Spiders looked to avoid the 10-run rule in the top of the seventh when Brown led off with a double to centerfield and moved to third on Alex Hale's single up the middle. Sever then hit pinch-hitter Matt McKenna with a pitch to load the bases for Richmond. The Spiders got a run on Victor Croglio's ground ball to Marlowe, who stepped on the bag at third and fired over to Landy at first for the rally-killing double play. Sever forced Benji Marshall to fly out to center to end the game.

Sever collects the Billikens' first Atlantic 10 Conference victory, improving to 2-2 overall on the season. He struck out three and issued just one walk in seven innings. UR starter Derek Duclos took the loss, falling to 0-4 on the year, as he yielded six runs on seven hits in just three innings on the mound.

The two teams play the rubber game of the series at noon on Sun., Mar. 26, at The Billiken Sports Center.