May 3, 2008

Box Score

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - Visiting Saint Louis broke open a pitchers' duel with four runs in the fifth inning and defeated Richmond, 12-3, Saturday in the second game of an Atlantic 10 baseball series at Pitt Field. Hank Coogan extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a double in his final at bat for the Spiders, who could have made up ground in the race for an A-10 postseason berth with a win.

Saint Louis starter Dave Sever shut the Spiders down by holding the A-10's second-best offense to just two runs (one earned) and seven hits with seven strikeouts in his eight innings of work. He improved to 4-5 by facing just seven batters over the minimum.

Senior starter Alex Hale cruised through four innings, allowing just three hits with four strikeouts but found trouble in the fifth and was dealt his first loss of the season (4-1).

Freshman Derek Boliek drove in both of the Spiders' runs off Sever and classmate Mike Mergenthaler's fifth homer of the season was tagged to reliever Mark Zielinski in the ninth.

The loss dropped Richmond to 17-25-2 overall, 8-11-1 and at least 2.5 games back of the final playoff spot in the A-10, while Saint Louis improved to 22-24, 7-13.

Greg Rodgers picked up right where he left off Friday, clubbing a pair of solo home runs off Hale in the second and fourth innings, giving SLU leads of 1-0 and 2-1. The designated hitter's solo shot on Friday was the only run allowed in the 2-1 Spiders' victory.

Richmond answered Rodgers' first blast by manufacturing a run in the third after Austin Reilly led off with the first of his two hits. Chris Cuppia bunted Reilly to second and Boliek's single to center tied the game.

But the Billikens puts themselves in the drivers' seat with four runs in the fifth, thanks two walks, a pair of infield singles, a sacrifice fly, a double and a wild pitch. Rodgers roped the run-scoring double to the gap in right center, an inning after his second homer gave SLU the 2-1 edge.

Richmond responded with a run in the bottom of the frame when Boliek's RBI groundout scored Reilly, but Saint Louis iced the game with six more runs over the final three innings off the Spiders' bullpen.

The Spiders allowed 16 hits (four home runs) and used six pitchers in the contest. Andrew Guerra did a bulk of the late-inning damage and finished with two hits and five RBI.

Sunday's rubber-match is set for noon at Pitt Field.