April 24, 2013

Box Score

MERION STATION, Pa. - Despite falling behind early, the Saint Joseph's baseball team battled back from a seven-run first-inning deficit to beat Delaware, 12-11, in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon at Smithson Field. Brian O'Keefe finished a double short of the cycle as head coach Fritz Hamburg earned his 100th career victory, all in a Hawk uniform.

Greg Kumpel led off the decisive 10th inning with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Anthony Cirillo. Quinn Renner followed with a sacrifice bunt before Nate Shank was intentionally walked to load the bases. Collin Forgey came to the plate and lofted a 3-1 pitch from Eric Buckland to right field to score Kumpel with the winning run.

With the win, Hamburg became just the fourth coach in Saint Joseph's history to achieve the milestone.

Delaware (26-14) opened up a big lead in the top of the first, scoring seven times on five hits and an error to take a 7-0 lead.

Saint Joseph's (20-19) went to work on chipping away at the deficit right away. Forgey led off with a walk, advancing to second when Mike Muha was hit by a pitch. O'Keefe singled to left to load the bases for Chris Hueth, whose sacrifice fly to center score Forgey and put the Hawks on the board.

Kumpel then followed with his first home run of the season, a rocket over the fence in left to cut the Blue Hen advantage to 7-4.

The Hawks tied things up in the bottom of the second on a mammoth three-run home run to left by O'Keefe that scored Forgey and Stefan Kancylarz.

SJU went ahead in the third, scoring four more to take an 11-7 lead. Kumpel was hit by a pitch to start the frame, moving to second on a single by Cirillo and scoring on a single by Renner. Three batters later, Kancylarz laced a single to right to plate Cirillo before Muha doubled in both runners to give the Hawks a four-run lead.

UD got one back in the top of the fourth as Nick Ferdinand hit a sacrifice fly to cut the margin to 11-8.

The Blue Hens hung a three-spot on the board in the fifth to tie the game. Joe Giacchino, Brock Niggebrugge, and Jimmy Yezzo hit consecutive RBI singles to knot the affair at 11.

Pitching and defense took over for the rest of the game as neither team was able to break through until Forgey's sac fly in the 10th ended the game.

Steven Schuler got the win for the Hawks, allowing one hit in a scoreless 10th inning to improve to 2-1. Buckland fell to 3-3 with the loss; he allowed one run on two hits and two walks while fanning four in three and a third innings.

O'Keefe led the way with four hits, two runs scored, and three runs batted in. Kumpel was 1-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBI. Forgey and Kancylarz scored a pair of runs apiece, while Kancylarz and Cirillo added multi-hit games as well.

Giacchino had four hits for the Blue Hens while Ferdinand drove in a game-high four runs.

The Hawks return to conference play on Friday when they head to Massachusetts for a three-game weekend set. First pitch in the series opener is set for 3:00 p.m.