RICHMOND, Va. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team dropped its Atlantic 10 Championship opener, falling to host and top seed VCU, 15-4, at The Diamond on Thursday afternoon.
The Hawks will play an elimination game later Thursday night against the loser of the game between second-seeded Dayton and third-seeded Rhode Island.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• VCU (35-14) jumped out early with four runs in each of the first two innings to take an 8-0 lead.
• Saint Joseph's (21-18) got back into the affair with a four-run inning of its own in the third.
Ryan Picollo and
Brendan Hueth started the inning with walks before
Luca Trigiani loaded the bases with a single.
Andrew Cossetti followed with a sacrifice fly to score Picollo and get the Hawks on the board.
•
Liam Bendo followed with a single to score Hueth and make it an 8-2 game. Two batters later,
Brett Callahan singled home Trigiani before an infield single by
Langston Livingston scored Bendo.
• Unfortunately for the Crimson and Gray, the Ras got one back in the fourth before tacking on two in the fifth, one in the sixth, and three in the eighth.
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Mason Delane got the win after allowing four runs on seven hits in five innings.
Ian McCole started for the Hawks and was charged with eight runs, four of them earned, on five hits. He struck out four in two innings.
• Picollo was 2-for-3 on the day, while Trigiani and
Brandon Drapeau added two hits as well.
• With the win, VCU extended the nation's longest winning streak to 19 games.
UP NEXT
The Hawks will return to The Diamond Thursday night to contest an elimination game against the loser of the Dayton-Rhode Island matchup currently in progress. The winner of that game will move on to play on Friday afternoon.
