RICHMOND, Va. – Ryan DeSanto turned in his best outing of the season, tossing seven shutout innings, as the Saint Joseph's baseball team staved off elimination from the Atlantic 10 Championship by beating fifth-seeded Richmond, 4-0, at The Diamond on Thursday afternoon.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• After three scoreless innings, Saint Joseph's (28-23-1) broke through in top of the fourth.  Luke Zimmerman drew a one-out walk before taking the extra base and reaching third on a single by Nate Thomas.  Two batters later, Travis Rinker hit a three-run home run to give the Hawks the lead.

• Ryan Weingartner was hit by a pitch to start the sixth before stealing second base.  He then moved up on a groundout by Zimmerman before scoring on a groundout by Thomas.

• DeSanto took things from there, keeping Richmond (27-28) off the scoreboard for seven innings before handing things over to Cole Stetzar, who retired all six batters he faced to finish off the victory.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• DeSanto allowed three hits while striking out five in seven innings, his longest outing in a Hawk uniform, to earn the win.  Brock Weirather allowed four runs on six hits in seven and a third to take the loss for Richmond.  Stetzar threw two perfect innings of relief.

• DeSanto got the best of Weirather for the second time this season; the pair faced off on March 31 when the Hawks routed the Spiders, 15-0, at Richmond's Pitt Field.

• The run scored by Thomas in the fourth was the 164th of his career, passing Kevin Kirkby '01 and setting a new program record.

UP NEXT
With the win, the top-seeded Hawks will meet third-seeded Dayton in another elimination game at 7:00 p.m.