Temple Comes From Behind to Defeat Saint Peter's 9-7

Wednesday, April 10

Skip Wilson Field

3:00 p.m.

Temple University

12-16

Saint Peter's

10-17

Saint Peter's

Temple

Sophomore SS Nick Lustrino

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Temple Comes From Behind to Defeat Saint Peter's 9-7

4.10.13 | Baseball

Box Score

AMBLER, Pa. - Sophomore SS Nick Lustrino delivered a two-out, RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Temple its first lead of the game, 8-7, and the Owls added an insurance run via a balk to defeat visiting Saint Peter's, 9-7, at Skip Wilson Field Wednesday afternoon.

It was one of three hits and two doubles for Lustrino on the day. The Spring Lake, N.J. native also led the Owls with three RBI.

Freshman RHP Tim McCarthy (2-1) picked up the win, tossing a scoreless eighth inning in relief while junior RHP Ryan Kuehn retired the Peacocks in order in the ninth to notch his second save of the season.

Trailing 7-5 to start the eighth, freshman Fran D'Agostino started things off with a walk. Two batters later senior Elijah Yarborough also drew a walk, placing runners at the corners with one out. Junior Bobby Heitzman plated D'Agostino on a hard grounder to third to cut the deficit to 7-6. Freshman Jimmy Kerrigan (2-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI) followed that with a single to left which scored Yarborough to tie the game.

Senior Jordan Queja reached on walk which set the stage for Lustrino's game-winner. Queja later scored on a balk. With his 1-for-2 day at the dish, Queja upped his on base streak to 32 consecutive games, which is the second-longest active streak in the Atlantic 10 Conference

Senior Matt Mancini (0-1), who was four-of-four at the plate with three runs scored and a RBI, was charged with the loss. Mancini came in to start the eighth and was charged with all four runs.

The Peacocks wasted no time getting on the board, as they posted a three-spot in the opening inning with the help of three Temple errors.

Temple didn't dig into Saint Peter's advantage until junior David Hall scored while freshman Jimmy Kerrigan was caught in a run-down between thrid base and home plate.

From there, SPC tacked on a run in the fourth and fifth innings to go up 5-1, but the Owls would narrow the gap in their half of the fifth after Kerrigan ripped a three-bagger to score senior Elijah Yarborough from thrid before Queja lifted a sacrifice fly to send Kerrigan home to make it 5-3.

Prior to the game Yarborough, Lustrino, Zach White, Phil Gianakos and Zach Batchelor were recognized for an act of community service. Back in October following Hurrican Sandy, the five players helped Donna Cashman Knowles, the mother of former Temple assistant Sean Cashman, clean up from the destruction to her home.

Batchelor made his first start since April 26, 2011 on Wednesday against Saint Peter's. In his outing, he lasted 2.0 innings, through whcih he was charged with only one of three runs scored.

Temple (12-16, 3-6 A10) now travels to VCU for a weekend series with the Rams starting Friday. Saint Peter's falls to 10-17.