The Hawk

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Sports

Wendle's grand slam keyed the lone Hawk win at Dayton this weekend.

The Saint Joseph's men's baseball team dropped two out of three games this weekend to the Dayton Flyers in a weekend series in Ohio. The series got off to a positive start on April 11 as the Hawks won 9-4 to record their fourth straight victory, elevating their record to 13-19 (5-5 in A-10 play).

Offensively the Hawks were bolstered by the play of Ben Wendle, '09, who hit a third inning grand slam to jump start the Hawks' offense. The offensive production continued as David Valesente, '10, notched a two-run single in the fifth inning to help pad the lead. Kenny Pustizzi, '08, and Joe Cook, '11, knocked in insurance runs in the eighth inning to put the game out of reach for the Hawks.

On the mound, Randy Mower, '10, pitched eight solid innings, allowing only four runs. Chris Prescott, '09, got the final three outs to seal the win for Saint Joseph's. For Dayton, Marshall McDonald helped keep things interesting with two solo home runs off of Hawk pitching.

Things went south for the Hawks on April 12, however, as they dropped both ends of a doubleheader, 5-4 and 6-4, respectively. In the opener, the Hawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but were unable to hold it. Two early RBIs by Wendle and another by Jeremy Jakubowski, '08, accounted for the lead. But Dayton rallied back to tie the game and force extra innings, led by the two-run home run by Marshall McDonald. In the tenth inning, the Hawks actually pushed across a run with a single by Tim Smith, '08, only to see the Flyers tie the game in the bottom of the tenth on a Cole Tyrell single. After the Hawks failed to plate a run in the top of the eleventh, Tyrell would finish the job with a walk-off RBI single to put one in the win column for the Flyers. The loss ended the Hawks' four-game winning streak.

In the second game of the doubleheader, it was Dayton who got off to a fast start. They scored three first inning runs off Saint Joseph's starter Don Werner, '08. An RBI single by Mike Coleman, '11, and an RBI double by Tim Smith cut the lead to 3-2, but Dayton was able to push two more runs across in the middle innings. Valesente cut the lead to 5-3 with a sixth inning double, but the Flyers added another in the eighth and held off a late rally to win 6-4. The losses dropped the Hawks to 13-21 (5-7 A-10). The team will travel back to Ohio next week to face Xavier in a three-game set starting on April 18.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools