Rickards launches baseball team to series win over St. Joseph's

By Ben Rosehart
Collegian Staff
April 5, 2006

Three may be the magic number, but for sophomore John Rickards, Sunday, April 2 was a magical day.

After La Salle split the first two games of its weekend series with St. Joe’s, Rickards crushed three home runs over the right field wall in the rubber match, with the third and final blast coming in the bottom of the ninth to give the Explorers a 9-6 walk-off victory.

Sophomore John Rickards (second from left) is congratulated by teammates
after one of his three homeruns in Sunday’s 9-6 victory over St. Joseph’s.
Picture taken by Lou Perseghin.

Unlike his first two homers, there was no doubt in Rickards’ mind that the game was over after he pounced on Hawks pitcher Mark Imbo’s pitch.

“The first two, I wasn’t too sure that they were going out, but the last one I pretty much knew it was gone when I hit it,” Rickards said. “My teammates really picked me up on Saturday, and I didn’t have a good day at the plate that day, so it really felt good to help my team out the way that I did on Sunday.”

It had been two years since head coach Lee Saverio saw one of his own players hit three pitches out of the ballpark in the same game. Former La Salle catcher Brian Oakes last accomplished that feat when he hit three homers in a 12-10 victory at Delaware State during the 2004 season.

“[John] had an outstanding performance,” Saverio said. “We know what he’s capable of, and he’s just starting to scratch the surface. He can really be a playmaker.”

Gerard Breslin (2-2) picked up his second win of the season with a scoreless top half of the ninth, and the Explorers scored five runs in the final two innings to complete an impressive comeback over their archrival.

St. Joe’s (11-20, 3-3 in the A-10) got out to a 4-0 lead against La Salle starter Dennis Burge, but a solo shot by Rickards and an RBI single by Ken Elkind in the fourth inning cut the Explorers deficit in half.

In the eighth, Rickards’ second home run of the game chased Hawks starter Jason Hessler and cut the St. Joe’s lead to 6-5. Imbo replaced Hessler, and senior George Hudock promptly greeted him by crushing a shot to left field to tie the game at six. It was Hudock’s 20th career home run as an Explorer.

After catcher Rich Prall reached base on an error and Mike Dertouzos drew a walk with one out, Rickards stepped up to the plate and belted the game-winner.
“It was just one of those days when you’re seeing the ball real well, not swinging at off-speed, and you’re able to sit back and wait for your pitch,” said Rickards, who finished 4-5 from the plate with 5 RBI.

La Salle (9-17, 4-2 in the A-10) also notched its 800th victory in the history of the baseball program when it beat the Hawks 8-6 on Saturday, using small ball on offense and strong pitching by Elkind (2-1).

First, a Mike Essery sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning led to a two-run single by Burge up the middle on a check swing. Then in the seventh, Dertuzous stepped up and hit a two-out, two-run single that extended the inning and allowed Hudock to hit a three-run home run to break the game wide open.

“I think seeing the competition earlier in the season like Arizona and UNC-Wilmington really prepared us for the pitching that we have been seeing in the A-10,” Rickards said.

The Explorers struggled at the beginning of the season when the team faced those established powerhouses, as well as away games at Duke and Dallas Baptist. With the back-to-back wins over St. Joe’s after Friday’s 4-2 defeat, La Salle has won six of its last seven home games.

“Playing against teams in a conference where the talent is much better does nothing but make you better,” said Elkind, who struck out nine in seven innings of work on Saturday to win his second straight start. “We figured out that we can play with those teams – we just have to limit mistakes to a minimum. Teams in our conference may not take advantage of every little mistake, but teams like Arizona and UNC-Wilmington take advantage of every bad pitch, bad play and any little mistake.”

While losses aren’t always a measure of success, Saverio says playing better competition to help the team down the road was by design.

“The idea is to play top competition to get ready for our conference, and I think now it has really paid off,” Saverio said. “I’m really happy with our team right now. We’re competing and now we’ve won two back-to-back, hard-fought A-10 series. St. Joe’s threw three very good pitchers at us, and we had to come back and win two in a row against the Hawks to win the series, so we hope to take that with us and in to Rhode Island this weekend.”

Last night’s game ended too late to be included in this issue. After a date with Delaware today at 3 p.m., the Explorers will travel to Rhode Island for a three-game set this coming weekend.

rosehab1@lasalle.edu