May 28, 2006

Box Score

BRONX, N.Y. - Saint Louis claimed its first conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth since 1966 with a 7-0 victory over St. Bonaventure this afternoon in the final game of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Tournament. In a mirror image of yesterday's meeting between the two teams in which all the runs came early, the Billikens (32-27) used a rare burst of power to score all seven runs in the top of the ninth. Bill Musselman provided the heroics with a three-run home run that hit the fair pole and the top of the wall in the left field, plating the first runs of the day. The offense supported the eight-inning effort of junior Ryan Bird, who scattered five hits but did not give up a run in collecting his eighth win of the season.

After the Billikens worked out of trouble in the bottom of the first, the Bonnies' defense robbed Bill Musselman and Gilbert Marlowe of hits in the top of the second, helping starter Cody Vincent, pitching on just one day's rest, to face just six hitters through the first two innings. The Bonnies had runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Ziggy Moore's strong throw from deep in the hole at short helped Bird close out the inning. The Bonnies got a leadoff double from Josh Perkins in the bottom of the third with the primary RBI hitters coming to the plate. Bird induced a weak ground ball from A-10 Player of the Year Brian Pelligrini, got hot-hitting clean-up man Joe Rizzo to fly out to center and closed the inning by striking out Matt Mardeusz.

SLU threatened in the top of the fourth when Johnny Sweeney led off with a line drive single to left. After stealing second base, he moved to third on Greg Rodgers' fly ball to right. Vincent rallied for a strikeout for the second out then hit Marlowe to put runners on the corners for Tim Landy. Marlowe swiped second, but the Bonnies' left-hander got a ground ball out of Landy to keep the Bills off the board. Bird followed the near miss with his first 1-2-3 inning of the game, including a pair of strikeouts.

St. Bona got a one-out double from Rizzo in the bottom of the sixth, and again Bird was up to the challenge, getting Mardeusz to ground out to short and Matt Agostinelli to fly out to shallow right field. Bird worked around a two-out single from Pelligrini and a walk to Rizzo, forcing Mardeusz to fly out to Sweeney in left center.

After recording just one hit in the first eight innings, the Billikens capitalized on the first defensive miscue of the game as Sweeney reached on an error in the top of the ninth. Rodgers roped a one-out single through the left side. The Bonnies went to the bullpen for John Zinnicker to face Musselman. The Billiken catcher fell behind in the count but continued for foul off pitches, including one that had warning track power but curved just outside the left field line. As Musselman homed in on Zinnicker's breaking ball, he sent a shot that tapped the fair pole just at the top of the wall on the left field line to give SLU a 3-0 lead. Marlowe kept things going with an infield single, moving to second on the second throwing error from the St. Bona shortstop. Eddie Williams, a left-hander, took over for Zinnicker to face Landy, who drove one into the turf down the third base line and beat it to first for an infield single. With runners on the corners, the Billikens pulled a double steal with Marlowe diving for home around the tag of Brandon Salerno for a 4-0 lead. Williams ended up walking B.J. Rodrigue before turning the game over to right-hander Sean Bruet. Landy and Rodrigue moved up on Moore's ground out, although their location did not matter when Jon Guyre tucked the second home run of the inning just over the left field wall for a 7-0 lead.

With the win, Bird improved to 8-5 on the season and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. The home runs were just the second of the season for both Musselman, also an All-Tournament selection and Guyre.

The Billikens will await the NCAA selection show on Mon., May 31, to learn their site and opponent for the NCAA Tournament.