Eric Peterson’s Bid At No-Hitter Leads Baseball Past La Salle in 3-0 Win; Team Shaves Heads For Cancer

Saturday, April 6

Skip Wilson Field

1:00 p.m.

Temple University

11-15, 3-5

La Salle

10-16, 5-3

La Salle

Temple

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Eric Peterson’s Bid At No-Hitter Leads Baseball Past La Salle in 3-0 Win; Team Shaves Heads For Cancer

4.6.13 | Baseball

Box Score

Photo Gallery | Vs. Cancer Foundation Head Shaving Highlights | Coach Wheeler Interview | E. Peterson Interview

Note: Sunday's series finale with the La Salle Explorers has been changed from a 12:00 p.m. start to a 1:00 p.m. opening pitch.

AMBLER, Pa. – Sophomore Eric Peterson took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before allowing the only hit of the game for La Salle on Saturday as the Owls took the second game of the weekend set by a final of 3-0 at Skip Wilson Field. The righty was three outs away from making history for the Owls as it would have been the first no-hitter in 31 years dating back to Mach 8, 1982 when Steve Olden held Detroit scoreless in a 5-0 Temple win.

Peterson's stellar performance was his second straight complete game and his first career complete game shutout. The sophomore faced the minimum batters through seven innings as he only faced a total of 28 batters for the game. The Bear, Del. native recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in his complete game effort and improved to 4-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 1.91 on the year.

The Owls opened the scoring on the day in the third inning when senior Jordan Queja drove a double to the left field wall that scored junior David Hall who reached base on a walk to lead off the third inning. With the standup double, the native from Hawaii has now reached base safely in 30 consecutive games dating back to last year. Queja went 2-for-4 on the day leading the Owls offensively with two doubles, one run scored, and one RBI.

Senior Henry Knabe scored a run in the fourth inning and added a sacrifice fly later in the game to extend the Owls lead to three. Knabe batted 2-for-3 on the day and recorded his team high 22nd RBI. With his performance, Knabe has now increased his batting average back to .400 on the year.

Cleanup hitter Derek Peterson added two hits for the Owls in three at bats improving his batting average to .346, which is second on the team.

La Salle was unable to figure out Eric Peterson on the mound until they picked up their first hit in the top of the ninth inning on a double to left field from Joey Ravert to break up the no-hit performance. The Explorers has a total of four base runners on the day and only one scoring threat in the game. They had a runner 90 feet from scoring when Peterson recorded his ninth strikeout of the game to keep his no-hitter intact.

Last year, the Owls had a no-hit bid against Saint Louis in the second game of the series on March 24 when Eric's twin-brother Patrick Peterson entered the ninth inning of the game owning a no-hitter before allowing a single to the Billikens.

With the win, the Owls get back into the win column and improve to 11-15 on the year and to 3-5 in Atlantic 10 conference play. Temple will host La Salle (10-16, 5-3 A-10) again on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. when the two will meet for the series finale.

The Owls supported childhood cancer with the Vs. Cancer Foundation as they raised money to raise awareness which has the mission of “saving kids” lives by empowering athletes and communities to fund lifesaving childhood cancer efforts.” After the game, the Owls took part in shaving their heads with friends and family gathered in support to take part in the postgame activities.

The Vs. Cancer Foundation was started by Chase Jones, a brain cancer survivor. As a freshman and baseball player at UNC Chapel Hill, Jones was diagnosed with Stage IV brain cancer, causing him to undergo five rounds of chemotherapy. In 2010, after taking a year off for his treatment and returning to school the following fall, he persuaded his teammates, coaches, managers and trainers, a group of about 50 people, to shave their heads to raise money for the pediatric oncology program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The event, dubbed BaseBald at UNC, raised $5,400, and a similar event a year later raised over $14,000, an effort that landed Jones the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy Award last year from the Triangle chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Following his graduation in 2011, Jones pitched the idea to the St. Baldrick's Foundation, which raises money through head-shaving events to benefit kids with cancer.

Jones joined the Foundation just over a year ago as BaseBald and family relations coordinator, and last year helped raised over $375,000 through 40 head-shaving events by high school, college, minor league and youth baseball teams in 14 states.