TYSONS, Va. – An early offensive deluge and a masterful outing on the mound led the seventh-seeded Saint Joseph's baseball team to a 14-0 rout of top-seeded Saint Louis on Thursday afternoon in a 2024 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship elimination game at Capital One Park.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
• For the second consecutive game, the Hawks got things started in the first inning as Conlan Wall drew a walk, advanced to third on a single by Ryan Cesarini, and scored on a failed pickoff attempt.
 
• Saint Joseph's (28-25) blew the game open over the course of the third, fourth, and fifth innings.  Wall drew his second walk of the game in the third before Cesarini brought him home with his first home run of the afternoon.  Ryan Weingartner and Owen Petrich then greeted a new pitcher with consecutive singles before Ryan Picollo singled them home to push the lead to 5-0.
 
• In the fourth, Jakob Reed hit a one-out single before Wall was hit by a pitch.  Cesarini followed with a deep home run onto the on-ramp beyond the right field fence at Capital One Park to make it an 8-0 game.
 
• Two batters later, Petrich hit a solo home run to left center and Tim Dickinson followed with a solo shot to right; the back-to-back homers extended the lead to 10-0 after four.
 
• Max Hitman doubled to lead off the fifth before Wall was hit by a pitch for the second time.  Cesarini walked to load the bases for Weingartner, who unloaded them with a two-run single to left center.  Petrich then hit into a fielder's choice to make it a 13-0 game.
 
• Cesarini led off the seventh with a single before eventually coming in to score on a fielder's choice by Dickinson to set the final margin.
 
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Ryan DeSanto turned in the performance of the season on the mound, holding the regular season champions to four hits while striking out a career-high 12 batters without issuing a walk and going the distance for his first career shutout.
 
• Charlie Weber allowed three runs on two hits in two and a third innings to take the loss for Saint Louis (37-16).
 
• DeSanto added to an impressive postseason résumé with Thursday's outing.  After starting an elimination game in last season's Championship, the southpaw tossed 16 shutout innings across the two starts, allowing seven hits and striking out 17 against three walks.
 
• Cesarini notched the fifth two-home run game of the season for the Hawks and his second of the season (April 21 vs. St. Bonaventure).  He finished the day 4-for-4 with a walk, four runs scored, and five runs batted in.
 
• Wall's leadoff walk was his 50^th of the season, extending his single-season program record; he is the first Hawk to eclipse the 50-walk plateau.  His second hit-by-pitch was his 18^th of the season, setting a new program single-season record.  Chris Hueth was hit 17 times in 2014.
 
• Petrich enjoyed a three-hit day while Wall scored four runs and Petrich crossed the plate twice.  Weingartner, Petrich, Dickinson, and Picollo each drove in a pair of runs.
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks will meet fifth-seeded George Washington in another elimination game on Friday at 11:00 a.m.  The contest was originally set for Thursday evening but was postponed due to impending storms.