PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Nate Thomas made history for the second time in five days as his first-inning grand slam set a new Saint Joseph's baseball program record for career home runs in a game the Hawks would eventually drop at Villanova, 8-4.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Thomas put Saint Joseph's (25-21-1) on ahead in the top of the first inning with a no-doubt-about-it grand slam out to right for his 44^th home run in a Hawk uniform and a 4-0 SJU lead.
 
• Things remained there until the fifth when Steve Grober hit a two-out, two-run single to cut the Hawk lead in half.
 
• Villanova (14-34) would tie things up in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Grober and a bases-loaded walk by Paul Cooke.
 
• The hosts took the lead in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Craig Larsen; Grober followed with a three-run home run to push the final margin to 8-4.
 
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• On a bullpen day for both teams, Cade Udell tossed a scoreless inning of relief for his first win of the season.  Alec Rodriguez took the loss for SJU as the teams combined to use 15 pitchers.
 
• Grober led all hitters with a 3-for-4, six-RBI performance for the Wildcats.  Thomas went 2-for-4, recording two of the Hawks' three hits in the game, which matched a season low (March 1 at Rutgers).
 
• The historic longball was the 10^th of the season for Thomas, who joins Brett Callahan and Ryan Weingartner for the team lead.  It also put him one ahead of Andrew Cossetti '22 (2019-22) on the Hawks' all-time list; Cossetti held the record for 431 days after breaking John Brue's previous record of 30 on March 11, 2022.
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks head to Virginia to take on George Mason in the final Atlantic 10 series of the regular season.  First pitch in the opener is set for 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at Spuhler Field.