Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Holy Cross; Knabe, Owls Walk-Off With 13-12 Win In Game 1

Sunday, February 24

Blacksburg, Va.

2:30 p.m.

Temple University

2-3

Holy Cross

1-3

Temple

Holy Cross

Photo by: Dave Schofield

Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Holy Cross; Knabe, Owls Walk-Off With 13-12 Win In Game 1

2.24.13 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

BLACKSBURG, Va.— Coming off its most exciting victory in recent memory, Temple Baseball was back out on Virginia Tech's English Field on Sunday, where it met Holy Cross for a doubleheader. The Owls opened the pair of games by winning, 13-12, in dramatic fashion on senior Henry Knabe's walk-off RBI single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. In the backend of the split, Temple (2-3) threatened to pull off the ninth inning heroics again, but fell short to the Crusaders (1-3), losing 8-6.

Game 1:
Temple scored in each of the first six innings of the opening game with Holy Cross to mount a 9-2 lead for junior right-handed pitcher Matt Hockenberry, who and was making his first start of the season.

The Owls got the majority of their offensive support from their first four hitters in the batting order. Senior Jordan Queja, who scored the game-winning run on the last of Knabe's three hits, walked four times. Sophomore Nick Lustrino had a consistent day at the dish, going 4-for-5 with two runs scored, while junior Derek Peterson followed a three-hit day against the No. 24 Virginia Tech Hokies with four RBIs and four runs scored on two hits—one being a home run— against the Crusaders on Sunday.

Redshirt sophomore Ryan Kuehn was awarded the win, while John Colella was tabbed with the loss.

Holy Cross' bats would eventually come alive. After Hockenberry cruised through the first six innings, allowing just two runs on three hits, the Crusaders' lineup proved to have finally figured him out when they came to the plate in seventh, as they ripped him for four runs before his line closed.

The Crusaders got the rally started on a leadoff triple by Eddie Ocello. From there Alex Maldonado singled to drive in Ocello for the team's first run of the four-spot they would put up. Nick Lovullo came to the plate and drew a walk to set Mike Ahmed up with a chance to lessen the gap. Ahmed slapped a single to score Maldonado to make it a five-run Temple lead, chasing Hockenberry out of the ballgame. Freshman Tim McCarthy came on as the replacement. In his second appearance of the season McCarthy struggled to get batters out, as he allowed two inherited runners to score after issuing walks to his first two batters and then beaming St. Clair.

With the bases still loaded, McCarthy departed the ballgame and redshirt sophomore Zach Batchelor came on and got the Owls out of the jam, throwing a strikeout and getting Barry to ground into the inning-ending double play.

After scoring in each of the first six frames, the Owls were held scoreless for the first time in the game and it proved to a detriment in the eighth inning, as the Crusaders got their first four batters on base.

Redshirt senior Steve Visnic was called on to make the 85th appearance of his career, making him the program's all-time leader in appearances. The Crusaders honored the feat by hitting up for two more runs in the inning, which allowed the Crusaders to tie the ballgame at nine.

Failing to respond during their at-bat for the second straight inning, Holy Cross suddenly had all of the momentum. The Crusaders went to the top of the ninth and jumped in front and took a commanding, 12-9 lead.

Disgusted by letting its copious seven-run lead slip away, Temple regained the stride it had at the plate in the first six innings when the teams went to the bottom of the ninth.

Junior David Hall got the comeback going by reaching base on a fielding error on a ball him to the second baseman. Senior Elijah Yarborigh then came to the plate and delivered the first of three runs the Owls would need to at least force extra innings, with his RBI-double. Later in the inning after Jimmy Kerrigan field out and Michael D'Acunti and Bobby Heitzman both fought pitch counts to earn walks, Lustrino came up with the bases load and nailed a single to make it a one-run ballgame.

Peterson, who had been dominant in both games in the weekend, made contact, allowing himself to reach first, but forced Heitzman out at home. With two outs and the bases still jammed, the Owls were down to their last chance. Knabe came up and became the hero, as he ripped a single to score Queja from first base to win it for the Owls.

Game 2:
Following a game that went nearly four hours long, the Owls and Crusaders were back on the field a half hour later for the second game of their doubleheader.

Holy Cross jumped out on top first when it got its first run off of sophomore left-handed pitcher Patrick Peterson in the bottom of the second, courtesy of back-to-back triples from Brandon Cipolla and Stephen Wadsworth.

The Owls would answer back. With two out and Queja on third base after reaching on a single, Derek Peterson tripled to deliver the tying run and then the game one hero, Henry Knabe gave Temple a 2-1 lead by smashing double.

From that point on, the Crusaders retaliated by scoring in each of their next three-at bats to go back in front and run their lead up to a 7-2 advantage.

In the seventh, redshirt junior Dan Dragos singled to score Lustrino to cut it to 7-3, but Holy Cross would build back its five-run lead in the eighth.

Temple nearly pulled out the ninth inning heroics again.

The Owls got their first three runners on base. Knabe got the rally started with a lead-off single before Dragos walked and Hall ripped a base-hit to score Knabe.

Freshman Andrew Nist kept hopes alive, as he tacked on a run when his single scored Dragos. Senior Allen Stiles then pounded out a base hit to load the bases for Lustrino, who slimmed the Holy Cross lead to two runs on his single. With a chance to tie or give the Owls the lead, Peterson came to the plate and fought through a full-count, but fouled out to first base to end the threat.

Patrick Peterson, who was charged with the loss, was forced out of the game after 4.0 innings of work. He departed with a line that read five earned runs on seven hits, while striking out seven and walking four.

Junior Preston Hill was responsible for two of those seven runs, which he surrendered in the first of his three innings of work, while freshman Connor Staskey threw one inning of relief, allowing one run on one hit.

After going 2-1 in its second weekend, the Owls are now 2-3 on the year and will now look to next weekend's three-game weekend series at Old Dominion.