Temple University Athletics
THREE-RUN EIGHTH GIVES LA SALLE 7-4 WIN OVER TEMPLE
5.18.06 | Baseball
AMBLER, PA -- La Salle scored three unearned runs in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie and win the series opener over Temple, 7-4, on Thursday afternoon at Skip Wilson Field. Neither team put together much offense early on, combining for four hits and no runs until the bottom of the fifth, but the late innings belonged to the Explorers. Sophomore Devon Swope went 3-for-5 with a RBI-double to pace Temple.
With the Thursday conference game throwing a wrench into each team's starting rotation, two pitchers that normally come out of the bullpen received the start. Temple's sophomore Eric Fritz and La Salle's John Reifsnyder, two pitchers who combined for three starts this season, battled over the first half of the game. Neither pitcher factored into the decision, but both put up solid numbers. Fritz scattered three hits in 5.1 innings and allowed two earned runs, while Reifsnyder went six frames and allowed a single earned run.
Temple got on the board first in the fifth as a freshman Casey Sellen double-play groundball scored classmate Steve Mury, who reached on an error. The Explorers (18-31, 10-14 A-10) answered back in the top of the sixth, scoring three runs, two coming on a triple by John Rickards.
Trailing 3-1, the Owls evened the score with two runs in the seventh. Freshman Mike Sweet led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman Carmen Del Mastro (2-for-3), and scored on a double by Sellen. A single by freshman Jamie Abercrombie plated Sellen to tie the score.
With senior Tim Foulkrod in for Fritz, La Salle took advantage of a costly TU (12-39, 6-17) error to score three unearned runs in the eighth. A bases-loaded line drive to third was dropped, and instead of an inning-ending double-play, the Explorers scored the go-ahead run and had new life. An RBI single by Billy Kern gave La Salle a 6-3 lead after eight.
Rickards hit his seventh homer of the season to left-center to put the visitors up 7-3. Temple tried to put together a two-out rally in its final at-bat. Swope doubled home Abercrombie (2-for-5) but it was all the home team could muster.
Gerard Breslin (5-5) earned the win in relief, pitching three innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out five. Foulkrod (1-9) suffered the loss, allowing one earned run in 3.2 innings.
The series continues on Friday at 1 p.m.
