Owls Downed, 4-3, By Villanova On Dramatic Play At The Plate

Wednesday, April 25

Ambler, Pa.

3:00 p.m.

Temple University

14-26

Villanova

23-19

Villanova

Temple

Allen Stiles

Owls Downed, 4-3, By Villanova On Dramatic Play At The Plate

4.25.12 | Baseball

Box Score

AMBLER – It was another nail-biter of an ending at Skip Wilson Field on Wednesday afternoon. Down to their final out and trailing 4-3 to Villanova in the bottom of the ninth, Temple got back-to-back singles from Elijah Yarborough and Henry Knabe. Allen Stiles collected his fourth hit of the game, as he continued to the rally, slapping a base-hit into right field, giving Yarborough a chance to round third and tie the game at four, but a throw from right field and a perfect hop to Villanova catcher Brandon Clark made Yarborough a dead duck at the plate and gave Temple a devastating 4-3 loss to close out its homestand.

The Owls feasted off of Villanova pitching, having 11 hits in the ballgame, but couldn't seem to put together a rally until the final two innings of the game.

Trailing 3-1 in the eighth inning, the Owls loaded the bases with nobody out for the hitter opponents least want to face—redshirt senior Steve Nikorak.

Before throwing to Nikorak, the Wildcats substituted Stephen Ostapeck in for relief pitcher Matt Longfield.

On a 1-0 pitch from Ostapeck, Nikorak launched a shot that went off the top of the left field wall and just short of a grand slam. Instead, Nikorak pulled into second base with a stand-up double and knocked in two runs in the process, as Knabe and Stiles crossed the plate to knot the game at three.

With second base open and with Wildcats on the corners, Tyler Sciacca broke for the steal. In the rundown, which he was successful in, while Marion Calbi snuck home for the first run of the ballgame.

Villanova would increase its advantage in the third inning to a two-run lead, taking a run off of Owls' reliever Ryan Kuehn. With senior Brant Nolrander in the game, Villanova made it a three-run game in the sixth inning.

Temple finally made some noise and voided the shutout when senior Jabair Khan crossed the dish on another one of Stiles' hits.

Head coach Ryan Wheeler used six pitchers in the ballgame. No pitcher went more than 2.0 innings of work. Regular starters sophomore Matt Hockenberry and freshman Patrick Peterson even saw an inning of work, helping to bolster the Owls' chances.

Senior Brian Sustersic was the last one called out of the bullpen for the Owls, as he was deemed the loss due to surrendering Villanova's fourth run of the game, which was scored in the top of the ninth inning.

The Owls have concluded an eight-game homestand and are now finished with hosting non-conferecne opponents in midweek games this season. From here, Temple (14-26, 2-10) will get back on the road and will visit Amherst, Mass. where they will take on the Massachusetts Minutemen in an Atlantic 10 Conference weekend series. The three-game set gets underway Friday 3:00 p.m.