March 13, 2010
Box Score
MURRAY, Ky. - Saint Louis scored nine runs in the top of the third inning en route to an 18-7 triumph at Murray State Saturday in non-conference baseball action at Reagan Field.
SLU's 18 runs are the most scored since the 2006 club plated 18 against South Dakota State. Everyone in the starting lineup scored and posted at least one hit for the Billikens. Danny Brock was 3-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs, two hits and two walks, while Mike Levine drove in four runs. Cody Cotter and Zach Miller each posted two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored.
Bryant Cotton (3-1) earned the win on the mound after allowing four runs in six innings. He struck out five and walked one.
The Billikens (8-7) and Thoroughbreds (5-8) will decide the three-game series tomorrow in the rubber match. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Jerry Mancuso is slated to start on the mound for the Billikens.
Murray State jumped on top first with a run in the second before SLU broke the game open with nine runs in the third, all of them coming with two outs. Brock and Ben Braaten walked, and both came around to score on a Myers double to make it 2-1 Billikens. That looked to be all the damage SLU would do in the second, as MSU starter Jake Donze got the next batter, Jerry Mancuso, to strike out. However, Mancuso reached first on the wild strikeout-pitch to keep the inning going.
Myers later scored on another wild pitch, and a walk to Lucas Calderon and a single by J.D. Dunn loaded the bases. Levine then cleared the bases with a three-run double down the left-field line to make it 6-1 Billikens. SLU wasn't done scoring, as Levine came around to score on an error following a bunt single by Cotter. Miller got into the action as well, singling in Cody Cotter, and later scoring on a Brock base knock up the middle. When it was all said and done, SLU scored nine runs on six hits in the top of the third, the most runs the Bills have scored in an inning this season.
Murray State plated a run in the bottom of the third, but SLU got that run back in the top of the fourth when Myers led off the inning with a solo homer down the left-field line, his fifth home run of the season.
SLU plated two more in the sixth. Brock blasted his team-leading seventh homer to start the inning, and Braaten followed with a single. Braaten came around to score on a Myers' second double of the game to put the Billikens ahead 12-4.
Saint Louis put together another big inning in the top of the seventh, scoring six times to go up 18-4. Cotter reached after being hit by a pitch, and ended up scoring on a Miller RBI double. Brock plated Miller with an RBI single, and SLU later loaded the bases on walks to Braaten and Myers. Guerra plated a run with a sacrifice fly to center. Then, with two outs, Dunn loaded the bases again after drawing a walk. Levine drew a bases-loaded walk, and Cotter would drive in a pair of runs with a two-run single to complete the six-run seventh.
Murray State scored three runs over the final two innings, but SLU held on for the 11-run win, its highest margin of victory this year.
