Temple University Athletics
TEMPLE RECORDS FIRST SERIES VICTORY WITH 15-2 WIN AT UMASS
4.30.06 | Baseball
AMHERST, MA -- The Temple baseball team showed glimpses of putting a complete game together in its two previous contests at Massachusetts this weekend. But on Sunday, the Owls were nearly perfect in all aspects of the game and recorded their first series victory of the season by defeating UMass, 15-2, at Earl Lorden Field. TU reached double-digits in runs for the first time all season and was on the winning end of the conference's ten-run rule, which stopped the game after the eight innings.
The Owls banged out a season-high 16 hits, including four from sophomore Devon Swope and three from junior Dan Brady. Swope was 4-for-5 with two RBI and Brady doubled, homered, and scored four times. The pair was torrid all weekend at the plate, as Brady batted .600 with three doubles, a homerun and eight RBI. Swope batted .538 and drove in three runs.
Sophomore Tom Dolan had one of his best performances of the season, scattering three hits in seven innings and striking out a career-high eight batters. He allowed two earned runs, one on solo homerun in the fifth by Jim MacDonald that broke up Dolan's no-hit bid. The southpaw improved to 2-3 on the season.
Freshman John Coyle also had a memorable day, connecting on his first collegiate homerun, a grand-slam in the seven-run seventh inning. He finished the day 2-for-5 with a career-high five RBI. Freshmen Pat Riley and Casey Sellen both had a pair of hits for the Cherry and White.
Lost in the lopsided final score was that the game was tightly contested through six innings. Temple held a 3-2 lead through six and was riding the left arm of Dolan. TU scored in the first inning for the third time in its last four games as a Swope RBI single put the Owls ahead 1-0. Brady launched a solo homerun to right-center in the third and after doubling in the fifth, scored on Swope's two-bagger.
UMass (10-22, 8-10 A-10) broke up the no-hit bid on MacDonald's dinger in the fifth and added another run in the sixth on an RBI single by Bryan Garrity. Leading by just one run, Temple was hoping for a few insurance runs to give Dolan a cushion after Sellen led off the seventh with a double. Instead, the Owls hung a seven-spot on the board.
Brady and freshman Lenny Del Grippo had RBI singles in the frame, which featured three Minutemen pitchers. A walk to Riley forced in a run and Coyle's line-drive shot over the 370 sign in right-center cleared the bases to put the visitors up 10-2.
But after reaching double-digits for the first time in 41 games, the offense wasn't done. Temple added five more runs, all unearned, in the top of the eighth. Riley, Coyle and freshman Jamie Abercrombie (Ambler, Pa. / Hatboro-Horsham) all had RBI singles in the inning.
The game was halted after senior Tim Foulkrod pitched a perfect eighth inning due to the Atlantic 10's ten-run rule in all conference games.
Minutemen starter Chris Lloyd (0-3) suffered the loss, allowing four earned runs in six innings.
The series victory was the first for the Owls since sweeping St. Bonaventure on May 13-15, 2005.
Temple (9-32, 3-13) travels to Lafayette in non-conference action on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
