May 17, 2008

Box Score

SAUGET, Ill. - Saint Louis closed out its baseball season with a 5-0 loss against Temple this afternoon at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill. The Billikens end the season 24-29 overall and 9-17 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

SLU, which wrapped up its first season under head coach Darin Hendrickson, registered 20-plus wins for just the fourth time in the last 10 years. It is also just the second time since 1996 that the Bills posted at least 24 wins. This season's win total is also the most in school history for a first-year head coach.

Temple (26-27, 16-11 A-10) will continue its season next weekend as one of six teams that will partake in the A-10 Championship in Camden, N.J.

The Owls scored two runs in the top of the first on a two-run home run by Byron McKoy, and Owls starter Steve Nikorak kept the Billikens out of the hits column until Tom Pinnell led off the top of the fifth with a single. Nikorak (3-3) picked up the win after yielding just two hits in six innings while striking out five. Ben White and Ryan Thomas combined to shut out SLU over the final three innings.

The Billikens' best shot to score came in the seventh. J.D. Dunn started the inning with a walk. Greg Rodgers then ripped a ground-rule double to right-center that prevented Dunn to score, but put runners on second and third with none out. With one out, Andrew Guerra loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch, but White retired the next two batters to prevent SLU from cracking the scoreboard.

SLU relievers Chris Merrick and Ziggy Moore kept the Owls off the board during the final two innings, thanks in part to a diving catch by Dunn at the warning track in right center in the eighth.

Pinnell had two hits to lead the Bills, while Ryan Bennett, Ramee Yacoub and Rodgers helped account for the Bills' five hits.