Feb. 16, 2007

Box Score

TROY, Ala. - Saint Louis suffered a 5-0 defeat in its season opener at Troy on a cold night at Riddle-Pace Field. The Trojans' pitching staff limited the Billikens to just two hits in the outing as the SLU bats struggled to shake off the early-season rust in the Billikens' first foray outdoors this season. Senior Casey Moore and his sophomore brother Ziggy Moore recorded the Bills' only hits of the night, while sophomore pitcher Dave Sever struck out three and allowed just one earned run in five innings as the starter.

The Billikens got off to a rocky start with a pair of errors in the bottom of the first, helping the Trojans to a pair of early runs. Senior Clint Robinson's single to left center plated the second run of the inning after an error plated leadoff man Ian Craze.

Casey Moore roped a two-out single to right center in the top of the second for the first hit of the season, and Sever worked around a double and an error in the bottom of the inning to keep the Trojans from adding to the lead. The sophomore right-hander also got out of the third unscathed, forcing Troy to leave the bases loaded with a ground ball of the bat of Bart Pettus.

A triple from Craze and a sacrifice fly from Edgar Ramirez put Troy up 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Sever yielded the mound to Mark Zielinski in the bottom of the sixth. The sophomore lefty gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh on a pair of hits.

The Billikens worked a pair of walks from Troy reliever Rob Brown in the top of the eighth but saw the next three hitters strike out to end the threat. Matt Tanzi led off the bottom of the inning with a home run off junior reliever B.J. Rodrigue to provide the final margin for the Trojans.

The two teams play twice more this weekend, squaring off at 1 p.m. on both Sat., Feb. 17, and Sun., Feb. 18.