Temple University Athletics
Temple Comes Back To Beat La Salle, 10-8, In Liberty Bell Classic Quarterfinals
3.25.08 | Baseball
March 25, 2008
AMBLER, PA - Temple scored eight unanswered runs, all with two outs, to notch a 10-8 come-from-behind victory over city-rival La Salle in the quarterfinals of the Liberty Bell Classic on Tuesday at Skip Wilson Field. Trailing 8-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, the Owls scored five runs in the inning and added three more in the seventh to win their sixth straight game. Junior Sean Barksdale had three hits, including a home run, and drove in four runs.
"It's always going to be a tough game against La Salle," Barksdale said. "We just came out today and showed that being down 8-2 wasn't going to rattle us. That's the kind of team we are right now."
"I was proud of our guys the way we fought back today," head coach Rob Valli said. "With the type of hitters we have, if we can hang in there for nine innings, we have a chance to score double-digit runs like we did today."
La Salle broke open a 1-0 ballgame with three runs in the fifth on a TJ Chism home run and sandwiched Barksdale's first longball of the season with four more runs in the sixth to make it 8-2. Unfortunately for the Explorers, the lead would not last much longer.
The Owls (11-7) sent ten batters to the plate in the inning and scored all five runs with two outs. They would have had more if the frame had not ended on a controversial fielder's choice play at second base.
Junior Carmen Del Mastro started things off with a single up the middle and classmate Jamie Abercrombie followed with a walk. Senior Tom Dolan into the game as a substitute, singled to center to load the bases. After a pop-up for the second out, Barksdale singled to short to score two runs as the throw sailed into right field.
Sophomore Matt Heltz then ripped a RBI single to right to score Dolan and move Barksdale to third. A wild pitch plated Barksdale to make it 8-6 and senior Mike Kelch reached on an error to drive in Heltz and cut the deficit to one.
Sophomore Matt Blackburn got out of a jam in the seventh and picked up the win to improve to 2-0 as the Owls scored three in the bottom of the inning.
Del Mastro again started the rally as he drew a walk and moved to second on Abercrombie's sacrifice bunt. He advanced to third on a ground-out and tied the game when Barksdale laced a single up the middle. After a walk to Heltz, Kelch came up big with a two-run single to left to give Temple a 10-8 lead.
Sophomore Ryan Thomas relieved Blackburn with runners on first and second with one out in the eighth. He needed only two pitches for two outs to retire the side and senior Arshwin Asjes pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save.
"We've settled into a recipe of Blackburn to Thomas to Asjes and that's been giving us a chance to hold leads late in games," Valli said.
Heltz, Kelch and junior Kyle Obal all had a pair of hits for the Owls. Temple has now won six straight games, the longest since the 2004 team won seven from March 25-April 6.
"Everyone has confidence in each other," Barksdale said. "When someone isn't on, his teammate picks him up."
The Cherry and White advance to the semifinals of the Liberty Bell Classic for the second straight season and will play Lehigh, a 3-2 winner over Villanova, on Tuesday, April 1 at a site to be determined. The winner of that game will play the victor of the Delaware-Lafayette game on Tuesday, April 8 at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. TU is making back-to-back LBC semifinal appearances for the first time since 2002 and 2003.
"Both teams are going to be anxious to have a chance to play at Citizens Bank Park in the championship game," Valli said. "We look forward to a good game."
Chism tripled, homered and knocked in four runs for La Salle (4-19). Joe Vincent (0-2) suffered the loss after allowing two earned runs in 0.1 innings of work.
Temple is back in action on Wednesday when it visits Monmouth. First pitch is set for 3 PM. Fans can follow the action with live statistics or video streaming at www.gomuhawks.com.
NOTES: Obal extended his hitting streak to eight games. He is batting .517 during that span...During the six-game winning streak, the Owls are averaging nearly nine runs a game and sport a 3.67 ERA...The back end of the bullpen of Asjes, Blackburn and Thomas have allowed five earned runs in 19.1 innings during the streak (2.33 ERA)... Asjes has not allowed an earned run since his first appearance of the season at Bethune-Cookman for a total of 11 innings...Temple is 9-2 when scoring more than six runs.
