May 27, 2010

Box Score

CAMDEN, N.J. - Saint Louis received a complete game from senior right-hander Bryant Cotton as the Billikens upended No. 1 seed Charlotte 3-2 Thursday at the Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Championship at Campbell's Field in Camden, N.J.

The fifth-seeded Billikens (31-27) now advance to play No. 2 Xavier Friday at 12:30 p.m. (CT).

Cotton went the distance for his ninth win of the season, which ties him with teammate Alex Alemann for the SLU single-season record. Rich Hansmann and John Marcum also registered nine wins in a season in the 1960s.

Today's victory came in an opposite fashion from yesterday's 16-11 slug-fest win against Fordham. Cotton came out on top on the pitcher's duel, yielding just two runs on four hits in nine innings of work against the league's top-rated defense. He struck out five and walked one.

Offensively, Andrew Guerra and Steve Fernandez all posted RBIs.

The Billikens cracked the scoreboard with a run in the top of the third. J.D. Dunn led off with a double down the left-field line, then stole third. Fernandez lifted a sacrifice fly to plate Dunn and put the Billikens on top 1-0.

Charlotte (37-17) took the lead with two runs in the bottom-half of the inning, but the Billikens pushed across two in the top of the fourth.

With one out, Guerra lifted a solo homer to tie the score. It was his third blast of the season. SLU pushed across the eventual winning run with two outs. Fernandez and Levine singled, and Cotter delivered a single of his own to plate Fernandez to give SLU the 3-2 lead.

Cotton then sat down 14 in a row before Charlotte managed a two-out single in the eighth. He retired the 49ers in order in the bottom of the ninth to lift SLU to the victory.