Baseball | Hawks sweep La Salle

The Saint Joseph’s baseball team made a strong push toward the Atlantic 10 tournament this weekend as they swept city rival La Salle in a three-game series at Campbell’s Field in Camden, N.J.

They began the weekend Friday afternoon with a 10-6 victory.  La Salle got the first run off of St. Joe’s starter Randy Mower, ’10, in the second inning.  But St. Joe’s answered right back in the bottom half of the frame.

Joe Cook, ’10, doubled off the wall in left center field.  It was Cook’s 100th career hit, and a big one at that as it allowed Kevin Taylor, ’12, to cross the plate and tie up the game.  They took the lead as La Salle made a crucial throwing error and Ryan McDonald, ’10, scored.

They tacked on three more in the third.  Mike Coleman, ’10, scored as Taylor singled down the left field line.  Then McDonald joined Cook in the 100 hit club on a big single that scored Brett Tiagwad, ’12, and Taylor.

“Whenever an individual reaches a certain level of achievement, it shows their contribution to the team,” Head Coach Fritz Hamburg said.  “It’s terrific.”

The Hawks sealed the victory in the seventh with four runs on hits from Cook, Quinn Renner, ’13, and Coleman.  They added one more in the eighth to go ahead 10-1.

Mower had pitched outstanding going into the ninth inning.  The Hawk’s ace gave up only  one run in the second inning.  But things got a little interesting in the ninth as a few errors allowed five runs to score before Mower was pulled with two outs.  Adam Rivera, ’10, came in to get the last out and the Hawks won 10-6.

“I think [Mower] was a bit sharper last week actually,” Hamburg said.  “But he pitched well enough to get us through 8.2 innings and could have gone nice.  It really helped us [with our bullpen] and was a major part of the weekend.”

They played two on Saturday to complete the three game series.  The Hawks won the first game 2-1in a pitcher’s duel. 

La Salle scored their only run in the first inning off of Kyle Mullen, ’13.   That was it for the scoring until the Hawks came to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Down 1-0, it was time to rally.  McDonald led the inning off with a single and Mike Plakis, ’11, came in to pinch-run.  Cook reached on a throwing error by La Salle first baseman Jon Gyles.  Ryan Kemp, ’12, was intentionally walked and the bases were loaded.  Two batters later, Coleman stepped to the plate after going 0-4 with four strikeouts.

“I kind of had it in the back of my mind that it wasn’t the best day, but I also felt I was due,” Coleman said.  “I was trying to be aggressive and confident.”

But he redeemed himself on the first pitch as he ripped one to left field and Plakis and Cook scored to win the game in dramatic fashion for the Hawks.

“It was a big momentum changer,” Coleman said.  “We came into the series down a game.  Christy pitched a hell of a game and after this hit things really turned around.  It was a big series this weekend against a cross-city rival.”

While Coleman’s walk-off garnered all the attention, the performances of both pitching staffs cannot be forgotten.  La Salle’s Kevin Christy pitched 6.2 innings of shutout ball before Pat Christenson came in on relief and eventually got the loss thanks to Coleman.

“Both guys pitched well,” Hamburg said.  “It made it very difficult on all our starters.”

For the Hawks, it was Mullen and Dominic Favazza, ’11.  Mullen gave up just the one in the first and pitched five innings, getting the no decision.  Favazza came in to pitch the sixth inning and was dealing right out of the gate.  He pitched four hitless innings and got his first win of the year.

“Dominic [Favazza] had by far his best outing of the year,” Hamburg said.  “He kept us right where we needed to be.”

They didn’t get much time to celebrate as they had to get right back out there for the second half of the doubleheader.  The Hawks completed the sweep with a 10-5 win.

La Salle scored one in the first off A.J. Holland, ’12.  St. Joe’s answered right back in the bottom half as Coleman scored on a David Valesente, ’10, single to left.

Holland came out to pitch the second, but after giving a run and putting runners on second and third, Hamburg pulled him from the game in favor of Rivera, who gave up one more run that was credited to Holland before getting out of the jam.

“It’s hard to be the starter in the third game with the bullpen available because it makes your leash that much shorter,” Hamburg said in reference to Holland’s short outing.

The Hawks broke out in the third, as they scored six times.  Tiagwad lead off with a double and scored on a Dewey Oriente,’10, double.  Oriente scored on a single by Valesente, who came around to score on a single by McDonald, who came around to score on a single by Drew Smith, ’10.  Cook scored on a Coleman single and Renner scored on an Oriente groundout to finish out the inning. 

They put three more on the board in the fifth inning taking a 10-3 lead on runs by Coleman, Renner, and Tiagwad.

La Salle added one in the sixth and one in the eighth to close it to 10-5 but could not draw any closer.  That was the final score as the Hawks completed the huge series sweep.

They improved their record to 15-18 and 10-5 in the conference, moving to third in the Atlantic 10. The Hawks return to the field Tuesday at Rider.

“[This was] one of the biggest weekends St. Joe’s baseball has ever had,” Coleman said.  “It put us in good position for the conference tournament.