Temple University Athletics
Rider Hands Temple 18-7 Loss
5.9.07 | Baseball
May 9, 2007
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - Trailing 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth, Rider scored in five straight innings to beat Temple, 18-7, on Wednesday at Sonny Pittaro Field. The Owls threw five hurlers, all of whom are in their first season of collegiate pitching, and gave up 18 runs for the second straight Wednesday. Junior Stan Orzechowski had three of TU's 13 hits, including a home run.
Orzechowski led off the game with a dinger to left, his sixth of the season, which ties sophomore Sean Barksdale for the team lead. The Owls took a 5-0 lead with four unearned runs in the fourth, taking advantage of a pair of Bronc errors.
Junior Mike Kelch reached base via error to start the frame, and moved to third on sophomore Jamie Abercrombie's double to left. After a fly-out, a mishandled groundball off the bat of freshman Matt Heltz scored Kelch, and sophomore Kyle Obal knocked in Abercrombie with a single up the middle. Orzechowski then plated two runs to extended Temple's lead to 5-0.
From that point on, it was all Rider (17-25). The Broncs scored two in the fourth before the Cherry and White added another in the fifth on an Abercrombie groundout. The hosts really poured it on, scoring three in the fifth, five in the sixth, five in the seventh and two more in the eighth to take a commanding 18-6 lead.
Sophomore Lenny Del Grippo singled in classmate Carmen Del Mastro in the ninth to complete the scoring.
Weber had two more hits and is now 10-for-17 (.588) over his past four games. He now has 73 safeties, moving him into sixth place on the single season hit list. Next up are Tom Whalen (1995) and Jeff Manto (1985), who each had 76 hits in a season. Abercrombie also had a pair of base knocks for Temple.
Sophomore John Coyle started on the mound and provided three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out one. He has not allowed a run in 7.2 innings this season. Freshman Ryan Thomas fell to 0-3 after allowing six earned runs in two innings.
Ryan Miller (4-4) picked up the win with three scoreless innings of relief. Sean Olson and David Hayes each had three hits and drove in four.
The match-up pitted a pair of former Gloucester County College coaches in Rider's Barry Davis (1990-01) and Valli (2001-05). Davis won four NJCAA Division III National Championships at GCC and actually hired Valli as an assistant in 1997.
The Owls (17-31) visit Duquesne for a three-game Atlantic 10 series beginning on Friday at 4 PM.
