Temple University Athletics
Baseball Completes Series Sweep Of La Salle With 10-3 Win
3.28.09 | Baseball
March 28, 2009
AMBLER, PA - Temple turned a one-run lead in the seventh inning into a 10-3 victory with six late runs on Saturday at Skip Wilson Field to complete the three-game sweep of La Salle. Senior Mark Ortega had three hits and four RBI, including a two-out, three-run home run in the seventh. The Owls are now 6-0 in the Atlantic 10 (11-11 overall) and off to their best conference start in 25 years.
Seniors Carmen Del Mastro and Sean Barksdale continued to pace the Temple offense. Del Mastro had two more hits, improving his average to a team-best .444, was on base four times and scored three runs. He has batted .650 (13-for-20) over the last five games.
Barksdale singled, doubled and drove in two runs, moving into eighth place on the all-time RBI list with 128.
Temple continued to hit well with runners in scoring position, batting .469 in the series with runners on second or third. Over 22 games this season, the Owls are batting .356 with runners in scoring position.
The Cherry and White have now started 6-0 in the Atlantic 10 for the first time since the 1984 team won its first seven games in the league. The Owls are a half-game ahead of Dayton (5-0) in first place. It also marked the first TU sweep of La Salle since 2004 and the first time the Owls swept consecutive A-10 series since 2001.
The Explorers cut the TU lead to 4-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. Junior Matt Blackburn, who relieved junior starter Ryan Thomas, entered the game with runners on first and third and two outs. Facing John Malloy, who battled the right-hander in an eight-pitch at-bat, Blackburn induced an inning ending fielder's choice to escape the jam.
The Cherry and White carried the momentum into the bottom half of the inning. Del Mastro and Barksdale walked to lead off the inning and La Salle misplayed a sophomore Byron McKoy sacrifice bunt, allowing Del Mastro to score from second to make it 5-3.
After another sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Ortega stepped to the plate looking to give his team a little more cushion. He did exactly that, launching a three-run home run to left, his third of the season, to give the hosts an 8-3 lead.
Barksdale added a two-run double in the eighth to complete the scoring for Temple, who improves to .500 for the first time since the opening weekend. The Owls have won nine of their last 11 games.
Blackburn earned his third save of the season with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. He allowed only a two-out single in the ninth for his only base runner. The junior has allowed only three earned runs in his last 14.2 innings for a 1.84 ERA.
Thomas recorded the victory to improve to a team-best 3-1. He allowed three earned runs in 6.2 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out three.
Ortega got the scoring started in the second when he doubled, moved to third on a fly-out to right and scored on a wild pitch. Senior Kyle Obal drove in a run with a two-out single in the third and later scored on Ortega's single to left to increase the lead to 3-0.
Del Mastro added a RBI single in the fourth that made it 4-0 before La Salle began to chip away at the lead.
Tony Negrin and Brian Meagher had two hits for the Explorers (9-13, 0-6). TJ Chism suffered the loss after allowing two earned runs in three innings.
Temple visits Villanova on Tuesday in the first round of the Liberty Bell Classic. First pitch is set for 3:15 PM.
