PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's baseball team pounded out 17 hits, including six doubles, a triple, and a pair of home runs on the way to a 12-3 rout of La Salle at Hank DeVincent Field on Friday afternoon.

For the fourth consecutive day – both days of play in the Liberty Bell Classic quarterfinal and both games of this series – the Hawks scored in their first inning at bat.  Singles by Matt Maul and Charlie Concannon left two on with one out for James McConnon, who reached via an error that allowed Maul to score the game's first run.

Saint Joseph's (11-11 overall, 2-3 Atlantic 10) batted around in the second inning and turned seven hits into five runs.  After Marc Giacalone led off the frame with a single, Kadar Namey hit his second home run of the series to make it a 3-0 game.

Matt Cuppari and Maul then reached via singles of their own before Concannon took Matt Holt deep to right, doubling the Hawk advantage to 6-0.

A bases-loaded walk by Giacalone and a single by Namey in the fourth pushed the lead to 8-0 before a sacrifice fly by Concannon and a double by McConnon extended the margin to 10-0 after five.

La Salle (5-19 overall, 0-5 Atlantic 10) got on the board in the bottom of the sixth after a pair of singles eventually led to Yan Carlo Rivera scoring on a wild pitch.  The Hawks got the run back in the top of the eighth on doubles by McConnon and Giacalone.

The Explorers cut into the lead in the bottom of the eighth, plating a pair on a triple by Austin Constantini and a single by Ben Faso, but SJU added a singleton in the ninth after a sacrifice fly by Jake Artz brought home Cuppari to set the final margin.

Tim Brennan earned the win after allowing three runs in eight innings; he struck out eight to improve to 4-2 on the season.  Holt was charged with six runs on nine hits in two innings to take the loss.

The teams will play the finale of the three-game set at Hank DeVincent Field on Saturday.  First pitch is set for noon.