WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Saint Louis baseball team rose to 4-3 on the season with a pair of victories over Mount St. Mary's. The Bills outlasted The Mount in a 2-1 win in the first game of the double header. They followed up that effort with a 10-5 display in the second game.
Game one of the double header was a classic pitchers duel. Through the first four innings of baseball, no runs were scored. In the bottom of the fifth, errors led to The Mount's only run of the game. The Mount's leadoff hitter, Sam Nott, reached on an error by shortstop Alec Sole. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Then a wild pitch from junior Alex Alemann sent Nott to third. Alemann responded by striking out the next hitter, but the dropped third strike let The Mount's Tom Healy reach first safely and the run to score. The Billiken defense tightened up and caught Healy trying to steal second. Saint Louis escaped the inning with no further damage.
In the sixth, SLU fought back to tie the game on an RBI double from junior Grant Nelson in the top of the sixth. The winning run came in the top of the seventh. Junior Jordan Hammerman led off with a walk and promptly stole second to move to scoring position. A passed ball advanced the go-ahead run to third with senior Connor Gandossy at the plate. Gandossy launched a sac fly to deep left, scoring Hammerman and eventually winning the game.
Alemann went the distance for the Bills, allowing one run (unearned), a mere two hits and seven strikeouts over his seven innings of work.This win is the 15th of Alemann's carrer, tying him with Eric Rohr for eight-most in SLU history.
In the second game, Saint Louis played smart baseball to score their runs. The Billikens only had one extra base hit in the contest, but amassed 10 walks on the day. Freshman Jon Corbitt was two-for-three and had the lone double on the day. Junior Alex Kelly did not get a hit, but drew three walks and scored each time he got on base. Junior Steve Fernandez went two-for-two and drove in three RBIs.
The Bills' second inning propelled them to the win. With two-outs, junior Mike Levine sparked the offense with a single. Hammerman responded with a single of his own and Kelly drew a walk to load the bases for Fernandez. He laced a single, scoring two. The next batter, Nelson, also drew a walk. Freshman Mike Vigliarolo hit a shot to the shortstop, who bobbled it and allowed Fernandez to score.
Junior Jon Levin picked up the win in game two. He threw three innings of shutout baseball and only allowed two hits.
Saint Louis will wrap up the series with Mount St. Mary's tomorrow at noon.
