May 10, 2008

Box Score

PITTSBURGH - Saint Louis dropped an Atlantic 10 Conference baseball game at Duquesne 9-3 Saturday at Duquesne Field. J.D. Dunn and Ramee Yacoub both launched home runs in the top of the seventh for the Billikens, but the Dukes responded with five runs in the bottom-half of the inning to cruise to the victory.

SLU dips to 23-26 overall and 8-15 in the A-10. Duquesne keeps pace with the conference leaders with the win, which moves the Dukes to 22-25-1 overall and 15-8 in the league.

Duquesne opened up to a 1-0 lead when Brandon Carroll cracked a solo home run to lead off the second inning.

SLU starter Scott Turmail retired the side in the next two innings before the Dukes tallied another run in the fifth on a Mark Tracy sacrifice fly. Duquesne made the score 4-0 with a pair of runs in the fifth on a solo homer by Derek Mechling and an RBI double off the bat of Pat Kimutis.

The Billikens, who registered just one hit through the first six innings, posted three hits and pulled within one at 4-3 in the seventh. Dunn started the frame with a solo home run. Greg Rodgers kept the hits coming with a single to left. Yacoub then plated Rodgers with a two-run bomb to make it a one-run ball game.

However, Duquesne responded with five runs on five hits in the seventh to regain command. Anthony Manley started the scoring with a two-run single, and Carroll lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3. The Dukes finished the scoring on RBI singles by Kimutis and Eric Morrison.

Turmail was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs (five earned) in 6-1/3 innings. He walked none while striking out two. Paul Bugajski earned the complete-game victory for Duquesne after allowing the three runs on six Billiken hits while striking out five.

Rodgers had a pair of hits for SLU, while Dunn, Tom Pinnell, Yacoub and David Blackwell accounted for the rest of SLU's six hits.

The two teams wrap up their three-game series tomorrow at 11 a.m. (CT) at Duquesne Field.