April 6, 2007

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Saint Louis scored twice in the first inning but saw La Salle score five in the bottom of the seventh to collect a 7-2 victory in Atlantic 10 baseball action this afternoon at Skip Wilson Field. The Billikens (5-26, 1-6 A-10) were hitless from the second through the sixth innings, while the Explorers (10-13, 3-4 A-10) were similarly stymied by SLU starter Ryan Bird until breaking the 2-2 tie in the decisive seventh inning. Senior Casey Moore and junior Greg Rodgers collected the RBIs for SLU.

After struggling at the plate in recent games, the Billiken offense went to work early after Ryan Crespi drew a one-out walk from La Salle starter Dan Waters. Moore followed with a double to left center to tally the first run of the game. Rogers ripped a single to center to plate Moore from second before Waters closed out the inning. The Explorers jumped on Bird right away as well, with John Malloy leading off with a single to left. Bird retired the next two hitters, including the first of his nine strikeouts on the afternoon, but saw clean-up hitter John Rickards drive a double to right to cut SLU's lead in half. A wild pitch put Rickards on third, but Bird fanned Davis Hewett to maintain his lead.

Pitching dominated the second inning as Waters struck out the side and Bird caught two of the three Explorer hitters looking at strike three. The Billikens went down in order in the third and fourth innings as well. La Salle knotted the game in the bottom of the fourth when Rich Prall and Rickards opened the frame with back-to-back doubles. Bird left Rickards stranded with a pair of ground outs and a fly ball.

The Explorers had a chance to break the tie in the bottom of the sixth on a two-out rally as Rickards drove his third double of the game and Hewett drew Bird's lone free pass of the day. The Billiken starter induced a ground ball from designated hitter George Papuchis to hold onto the tie.

SLU opened the seventh with back-to-back singles from Blake Bratcher and Bill Musselman, looking to regain the lead. Waters met the challenge with a pair of pop-ups and his 10th strikeout of the outing. La Salle did not miss its second opportunity to surge ahead in the bottom of the frame. T.J. Chism led off with a double to right and moved to third on Justin Handler's bunt single. With runners on the corners, Brian Meagher laid down a bunt to plate the go-ahead run. The Billiken infield tried to retire Handler at second but could not, leaving them trailing by one with two runners on. After striking out Malloy, Bird turned the game over to sophomore reliever Mark Zielinski. The left-hander got Billy Kern to pop up to B.J. Rodrigue at first for the second out of the inning. Prall followed with his second double in as many innings to push the Explorer lead to 5-2. Rickards complete his perfect 4-for-4 day with an RBI triple to center, and Hewett plated him with an RBI single, giving La Salle a 7-2 cushion.

La Salle went to the bullpen in the eighth, bringing in Dennis Burge, who got all three Billiken hitters to ground out to third base. SLU tried to mount a late two-out rally when Musselman reached on an error and Rodrigue slapped a single to center. Burge retired Gilbert Marlowe on an infield pop-up to close end the threat.

With the win, Waters improved to 3-3 on the season. He yielded just two runs on four hits and struck out 10 in seven innings of work. Bird fell to 0-3 with the loss, despite nine strikeouts in 6-1/3 innings on the mound. Rickards led all hitters with four hits and three RBI.

The two teams meet again on Sat., April 7, at noon (CT).