April 23, 2010

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. - Saint Louis used timely hitting and another quality outing from right-hander Bryant Cotton to post a 4-3 victory against Massachusetts Friday in the opening game of a key Atlantic 10 Conference baseball series at Earl Lorden Field.

With the victory, SLU improves to 20-19 and 8-5 in the A-10. UMass dips to 8-21 and 5-8 in the league. Due to the possibility of inclement weather on Sunday, the two teams will finish the series with a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m. (CT).

Cotton tossed his third consecutive complete game for his conference-leading seventh victory of the year. Cotton has gone the distance in all four A-10 games he has started. Against UMass, he allowed the three runs on just seven hits. He struck out eight and walked one.

Danny Brock blasted his 14th homer of the season in the contest, moving him one behind J.D. Dunn belted a key two-run double, and Jon Myers posted an RBI single to account for the offense.

The game was scoreless through the first three innings until Brock launched a solo shot with one out in the top of the fourth to put SLU up 1-0.

UMass struck in the bottom-half of the fourth on a two-run home run by Mike Gedman, which gave the Minutemen a 2-1 advantage.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Bills pushed across three runs in the top of the fifth to go on top 4-2. Mike Levine started the rally with a one-out double, and Cody Cotter drew a walk. With runners on the corners, Dunn doubled to left center to plate both runners and put SLU up 3-2. Myers knocked in Dunn with a two-out base hit to give the Billikens a 4-2 advantage.

That remained the score until the bottom of the eighth, when UMass plated a run on an RBI double by Ryan Cusick to pull within one at 4-3. UMass would later have runners on first and third with one out, but Cotton and the Bills got out of the jam to maintain their lead heading into the ninth. Cotton struck out the final batter in the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory for the Billikens.