Baseball goes 1-for-3 on weekend

By Matt Rothrock
Collegian Staff
April 16, 2008

The La Salle baseball team went 1-2 this weekend in a series with Atlantic 10 rival Duquesne. They lost the first game 18-9, won the second game 8-5 and lost the third 3-0.

In the first game, the Explorers produced a lot of offense, but the Dukes doubled them up, scoring in every inning except for two.

Mike Dao - Freshman Rick Gehman throws the ball in earlier this season.

The Dukes were walked nine times, with eight of them scoring. The top half of their lineup combined to go 7-for-9 with 10 RBIs and four home runs.

The Explorers took the lead first, though, when Mike Dertouzos grounded out to score Justin Handler.

Duquesne then took the lead in the bottom of the first with two home runs and never looked back. In the second, they scored six runs and sent 11 men to the plate. Derek Mechling, the Dukes’ leadoff hitter, went 4-for-5 with three home runs and seven RBIs on Friday.

La Salle couldn’t get the deficit any closer than five runs, even though they were swinging the bat well. John Malloy hit a two-run home run and drove in three on the day, while Handler hit a two-run homer of his own. They wound up losing the game by a whopping 18-9.

The second game went a lot smoother for the Explorers, as they kept the offense up and beefed up the defense. This was the first game of a doubleheader.

Malloy gave La Salle the early 1-0 lead in the first, and then he was scored by Handler in the second to tie the game at two all.

Duquesne scored two runs in the third, but the Explorers responded with two of their own. Dertouzos scored on a wild pitch in the fourth and singled in John Rickards in the sixth to tie the game at four all.

The Explorers then scored four runs in the seventh to blow the game open. Rickards, Chris Crawford, Dertouzos, and Kevin Jones all contributed RBIs.

Shane Frangiosa pitched the last two innings and gave up only one run. The final score was La Salle 8, Duquesne 5.

In the second game of the doubleheader, La Salle only had five hits and did not score any runs. The only positive news occured when Handler singled in the first to extend his career-high hitting streak to nine games.

Malloy walked in the eighth and has reached base in all 29 games he has played. Rickards also moved into 10th place on the all-time hits list at La Salle with 188.

The Explorers will play a home series against A-10 rival Fordham this weekend at Hank DeVincent Field.

rothrockm1@lasalle.edu