DAVIDSON, N.C. – Andrew Cossetti's fourth-inning home run provided the offense and a trio of Hawk arms did the rest as the Saint Joseph's baseball team won its opening game at the 2022 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship, topping Saint Louis by a 2-1 score at Wilson Field.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Neither team broke through until Saint Louis (28-23 took the lead in the bottom of the third on a two-out solo home run by Tyler Fogarty.

• Saint Joseph's (29-23) answered immediately as Nate Thomas led off the top of the fourth inning by drawing what would turn out to be the game's lone walk.  On the next pitch, Cossetti took SLU's Logan Schmitt deep to put the Hawks on top.

• Noah Weber finished his outing with a scoreless bottom of the fourth before making way for Mike Falco.  After the Billikens put runners on base in the fifth, Falco settled in and retired 11 of 12 before Ryan Devine came on for a perfect ninth.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Falco earned the win to improve to 7-3; he allowed one hit and struck out four in four shutout innings.  Schmitt allowed two runs on six hits in a complete-game defeat to fall to 8-2.

• Weber was charged with one run and scattered five hits while striking out three in four innings.  Devine retired all three batters he faced to record his eighth save of the season.

• Falco and Devine combined to send down the final nine Billiken batters of the game.

• Cossetti's home run was his 17th of the season, tying him with Thomas for the team lead.

• The win is the first postseason victory for the Hawks since a win over VCU in an elimination game at Fordham on May 27, 2016.

UP NEXT
The Hawks will play at 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon against the winner of Tuesday night's game between VCU and Richmond.