Explorers win series vs. St. Joe's

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
April 18, 2007

After grabbing a 6-3 Wednesday win over Penn, the Explorer baseball team took two of three from the Saint Joseph’s Hawks in a weekend series.

Junior Craig Muschko throws a pitch earlier this year at Hank DeVincent Field. -Mike Dao

La Salle went on the road Friday for the opener of a three-game set with St. Joe’s.

Freshman John Malloy had a huge game for the Explorers, as he went 5-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Junior John Rickards also made a large contribution, hitting his third home run of the season to right field in the first inning. This was part of a three-run Explorer first, which also included an RBI single from senior Rich Prall.

Senior Dan Waters had a nice day on the hill for the Explorers. He picked up his fourth victory of the season, going 7.1 innings and striking out eight batters. Senior Gerard Breslin notched his fifth save.

The Hawks spread out their scoring throughout the game, plating runs in the second, fourth and fifth before giving the Explorers a scare with a two-run eighth.

The Explorer fourth had RBI hits by both Malloy and sophomore Justin Handler. Senior Billy Kern’s sacrifice fly in the seventh proved to be the difference, as the Explorers held off the Hawks, 6-5.

St. Joe’s came back with a vengeance in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The noontime matchup proved to be a disaster for La Salle.

Sophomore Kenny Elkind was the starting pitcher for the Explorers, and he was hit early and often. The Hawks put up a six-spot in the first inning, just about taking La Salle out of it.

The Explorers scored a run in the second, but that was all the offense they would produce for the rest of the game.

St. Joe’s put the exclamation point on the win in the seventh when they added six more runs against the combination of junior Jamie Cowan, freshman Joe Vincent and sophomore Brian Kern. The final score was St. Joe’s 14, La Salle 1.

The Explorers didn’t let the loss keep them down, though, as they bounced back for a good game at the back end of the doubleheader.

Junior Craig Muschko was on the mound for the Explorers, and he pitched pretty well, allowing three runs on five hits in six innings en route to a no decision.

Freshman Brian Meagher got the scoring started with a two-run single in the second. Muschko cruised on the hill for La Salle until the fourth inning.

In the fourth, the Hawks used a pair of one-out doubles to cut the Explorer lead to 2-1. Later in the inning, with two on and two out, Jeremy Jakubowski of St. Joe’s reached base on an Explorer error, and two runs scored. This put the Hawks up, 3-2.

The Explorers evened the score in the seventh when freshman T.J. Chism scored on a St. Joe’s error off the bat of Billy Kern.

In the eighth, La Salle went ahead for good when Rickards knocked in Handler with an RBI fielder’s choice.

Breslin was brought in for junior Dennis Burge in the ninth, after Burge threw two scoreless innings in relief of Muschko. Breslin secured the save, giving Burge his fourth victory of the season. He is now 4-0 on the year.

With the 4-3 win, the Explorers won the three-game series. La Salle improved to 13-17 on the season, including 5-7 in the Atlantic 10. The Hawks fell to 6-25 overall and 3-9 in the conference.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu