April 11, 2006

Box Score

MARTIN, Tenn. - Saint Louis dropped a 12-4 decision at UT-Martin this afternoon as the Billiken pitching staff gave up eight doubles and a home run among UTM's 18 hits. The Billikens (17-14, 6-3 A-10) posted 11 hits, including three from senior Jon Guyre but left eight men on base in the loss.

SLU struck first in the top of the third on Ryan Crespi's two-out home run to right center, which also plated Guyre after he doubled to right. The Skyhawks took one run back in the bottom of the inning, capitalizing on two Billiken errors. Brett Spivy opened the frame with a double down the left field line and moved to third on Douglas Nicodemus' fly ball to right. After SLU starter Justin Wise got Jason Moore to foul out and Zach Dean drew a walk, Lance Renton slapped a ground ball to the right side. With two errors on the play, Spivy was able to score from third to cut the lead in half.

UTM took control of the game in the bottom of the fourth, again opening with a double down the left field line. Blake Turner put a double in right center to knot the game 2-2. Wise got a fly ball from Nicodemus for the second out but saw an error and three singles plate four more runs to give the Skyhawks a 6-2 lead.

Guyre made it a 6-3 game with an RBI single in the fifth inning to score Tom Pinnell from second, but UTM took the run back in the bottom on Nicodemus' double. Matt Mach picked up an RBI single to left center after Greg Rodgers led off the sixth with a single up the middle for a 7-4 margin. UTM tallied put the game out of reach with three runs on four hits, including three doubles, in the bottom of the sixth, and tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the eighth for the final margin of victory.

UTM starter Adam Ledlow collected the win to improve to 1-5 on the season, while Wise fell to 1-1 with the loss. Dean, Spivy and Jason Hockaday matched Guyre's three hits, while Blake Turner led all hitters with three RBI.

The Billikens return to Atlantic 10 Conference play this weekend at Xavier. The three-game series is set to begin at 2 p.m. (CT) on Fri., Apr. 14.