May 2, 2008

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. - Despite a solo home run by Greg Rodgers and a seven-hit complete game by Scott Turmail, Saint Louis came out on the short end of a pitchers' duel, 2-1, against Richmond at Pitt Field Friday afternoon.

With the loss, Saint Louis falls to 21-24 overall and 6-13 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Richmond improves to 17-24-2 overall and 8-10-1 in the league. The two teams continue the three-game series with games this Saturday and Sunday.

Turmail (6-4) was tagged with the tough-luck loss after hurling eight innings and allowing two runs on seven hits versus the league's second-best offense. He struck out five and walked none in his third-consecutive complete game. Matt Zielinski (5-1) picked up the win for the Spiders after going 7-1/3 innings. UR's Josh Horn picked up his first save.

Both pitchers got a double play to get out of trouble in the first, and Richmond plated the first run of the game in the bottom of the second. UR's Billy Barber, who came into the game leading all A-10 freshmen with 12 home runs, lifted the first Turmail pitch he saw over the left-field fence to put the Spiders ahead 1-0.

That remained the score until the sixth when SLU's Rodgers blasted a solo home run of his own. With two outs, he sent a Zielinski 1-1 pitch to left-center field that cleared the fences and equaled the score at 1-1.

After retiring seven Spiders in order, Turmail ran into a jam in the bottom of the sixth. Hank Coogan singled then was replaced on first by Ryan Metzroth who reached on a fielder's choice. With two outs, Mike Mergenthaler doubled to left-center to score Metzroth and give Richmond the eventual 2-1 victory.

Ryan Bennett had two hits and Casey Moore had one to account for the rest of SLU's four hits, a season-low in A-10 games this season for the Billikens.

The Billikens and Spiders resume their series at 1 p.m. (CT) tomorrow.