Temple University Athletics
Owls Avoid Sweep With 8-7 Win Over Xavier
4.22.07 | Baseball
April 22, 2007
Box Score | Coach Valli Audio | Barksdale Audio | Weber Audio
AMBLER, PA - Temple played the 2,500th game in program history on Sunday at Skip Wilson Field, and like the 1,346 times before, the Owls came out winners. The Cherry and White scored two runs in the seventh and held off a potential XU rally in the ninth to avoid the series sweep with an 8-7 victory. It was just the third loss in conference play for the Musketeers.
With the score tied at six after six innings, junior Stan Orzechowski led off the frame with a double off the right field wall. After a groundout, sophomore Sean Barksdale singled up the middle to give Temple the lead. Senior Dan Brady then doubled down the left field line and Barksdale scored all the way from first to give TU an extra cushion.
"I was just looking to put the ball in play," Barksdale said. "I've been seeing the ball real well lately and feel comfortable up there."
"We continue to put Sean up there with the game on the line and he continues to come through for us," head coach Rob Valli said. "But I think the best play he made today was scoring from first on Brady's base-hit down the line. Any other player on the field today doesn't score in that situation."
The extra run would prove to be needed after Xavier scored in the eighth to cut it to 8-7. Valli inserted shortstop-turned-closer Ryan Weber in the ninth for his first appearance in two weeks. Sean Farrell greeted him with a double to left and Adam Lipski was hit by a pitch to put the go-ahead run on first. After a line-out to center and a clutch strikeout, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third with two outs. Weber then induced a ground-out to record his second save of the season.
"With second and third, I had to come at him with my best stuff," Weber said. "I got ahead of him, made a good pitch and got him to rollover and that was the ballgame."
"Ryan pitched great and he loves having the ball in his hands with the game on the line," Valli said. "
Sophomore Matt Mongiardini gave Temple his best outing of the season, going 6.2 innings and allowing three earned runs. He received the no-decision after Xavier tied it up in the sixth. Freshman Kyle Monahan improved to 2-2 with 1.1 innings of relief.
The Owls received some clutch hitting up and down the lineup and seven of their 12 hits went for extra bases. Junior Devon Swope slammed his third homerun of the season to left in the second. Orzechowski had a double and triple, while sophomore Kyle Obal had a pair of two-baggers. He is 6-for-14 (.429) over the past four games. Brady and Barksdale, who extended his hitting streak to 19 games, also doubled.
A pair of sacrifice flies by Weber in the first and third sandwiched Swope's dinger and gave the Owls a 3-1 lead midway through the third. Brady singled home Barksdale to make it 4-1, but Xavier scored a run in the fourth and three unearned runs in the fifth to take a 5-4 advantage.
Temple answered back with a pair of runs, thanks to a bases-loaded plunking to Barksdale and a groundout by junior Mike Kelch
The back-and-forth game continued when XU tied the game with a double by Lipski in the seventh.
Mark Janzsen (3-2) suffered the loss after allowing two earned runs in three innings. Five Musketeers had multiple hits.
Temple's win snapped a pair of streaks. The Musketeers (19-21, 12-3 A-10) had won seven straight games, including five consecutive in Atlantic 10 play. The Cherry and White (13-24, 5-10 A-10) had dropped five in a row in conference action. The Owls are now two games out of the sixth and final A-10 playoff spot with four weekends to play.
"We're going to play all 56 games as hard as we can and have a chance to see what happens at the end," Valli said.
TU travels to Villanova on Tuesday at 3 PM before returning home to Skip Wilson Field on Friday for a three-game series with Saint Louis.
