MERION STATION, Pa. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team sent 26 batters to the plate across three innings, piling up a dozen runs on the way to a 13-7 win over St. Bonaventure at Smithson Field on Saturday.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
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Owen Petrich led off the second for Saint Joseph's (15-19 overall, 5-6 Atlantic 10) and eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by
Carter Jagiela for the first run of the game.
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• The Hawks broke things open in the bottom of the third. With one out,
Conlan Wall was hit by a pitch before stealing second and moving to third on an error. Two batters later, a fielding error on a ground ball by
Ryan Weingartner brought home Wall to double the lead.
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• Petrich then followed with a single to score
Ryan Cesarini and make it a 3-0 game. Two batters later,
Ryan Picollo hit a no-doubt shot over the fence in left to again double the margin to 6-0.
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• The Bonnies got two back in the fourth, but the Hawks would bat around in the bottom of the frame for the second consecutive inning. Wall started things off once again with a one-out single and moved to third on a single by Cesarini, who then stole second. Petrich followed with the Hawks' second three-run home run of the game to make it 9-2 and chase SBU starter Noah Czajkowski from the game.
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Tim Dickinson and
Ryan Picollo were then hit by pitches before Jagiela notched his second RBI of the day with a single that brought home Dickinson for a 10-2 Hawk lead.
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• St. Bonaventure (13-20 overall, 4-7 Atlantic 10) rallied for four in the fifth, but walks to Wall and Cesarini in the bottom of the inning led to a double steal; Weingartner then followed with a two-run single before Picollo hit an RBI single of his own three batters later to push the margin to 13-6.
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• The Bonnies would tally one in the top of the seventh but would get no closer.
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BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
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Will McCausland started for SJU and allowed six runs on 10 hits in five innings to improve to 2-4 on the season, while
Luke Zimmerman allowed one run on one hit over four innings to notch his first save of the year. Czajkowski was tagged for nine runs, six of them earned, on six hits in three and two-thirds innings to take the loss and fall to 2-4.
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• Petrich finished the day 3-for-5 with three runs scored and four driven in, while Picollo added four RBI and two hits of his own. Cesarini also notched a pair of hits and three runs scored; Wall added three runs as well, while Weingartner scored two runs and drove in three more.
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• The Hawks stole a season-high eight bases and were hit by a season-high five pitches in the game. Cesarini swiped three to lead the squad.
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• Saturday's game was dedicated to The Hidden Opponent as part of the Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's "Moving More for Mental Health" initiative.
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UP NEXT
The teams will play the rubber game of the three-game set at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
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