Saint Joseph's University

MERION STATION, Pa. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team clinched its second Atlantic 10 regular season championship in program history and Blake Primrose set a pair of single-season records as the Hawks beat St. Bonaventure, 14-9, on what will be remembered as an all-timer of a Sunday afternoon at Smithson Field.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
• St. Bonaventure (12-31-1 overall, 6-18 Atlantic 10) took its first lead of the series with a run in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Manuel Castro.
 
• Saint Joseph's (32-15 overall, 22-2 Atlantic 10) went in front in the bottom of the frame.  Joey Gale led off with a double before Primrose was intentionally walked.  Two batters later, Joey Pagano brought Gale home with a single; a wild pitch and a passed ball would bring home Primrose and Pagano, respectively, to make it a 3-1 game.
 
• The Bonnies drew level in the fourth on RBI singles by Castro and Anthony Fernandez before going ahead in the top of the fifth on a single by Alex Hebenstreit.
 
• Primrose led off the bottom of the inning with his single-season record-breaking home run to tie the game at four apiece; after a Pagano walk and a wild pitch, Tim Dickinson singled to score Pagano and put the Hawks back on top, 5-4.

• SJU extended the lead in the sixth with three runs on just a single hit.  Gale hit a one-out single before walks to Alex Kelsey and Primrose loaded the bases; Pagano and Jason Janesko then drew consecutive free passes of their own before Dickinson was hit by a pitch to force across three runs and extend the lead to 8-4.
 
• The Bonnies answered right away with a three-spot in the seventh on a two-run double by Hebenstreit and another single by Fernandez.
 
• The Hawks responded in the bottom of the stanza.  Carson Applegate led off with a walk before consecutive one-out singles by Kelsey, Primrose, and Beggy scored two runs to make it a 10-7 game.  Pagano then ripped an RBI double to bring up Janesko, who laid down a perfect safety squeeze bunt before Dickinson hit an RBI double of his own.  Jack Saker then followed with a single to score Dickinson and give the Hawks six consecutive run-producing at bats and a 14-7 lead.
 
• The visitors would not go quietly as Anthony Cordeiro hit a two-run home run in the eighth.  Andrew Gaines was summoned from the bullpen for the ninth, where a single and two hit batters loaded the bases, but he fanned Hebenstreit to end the game and secure the series sweep.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
• Justin Sweeney was the winning pitcher on Sunday, while SBU's James Capellupo took the loss, both in relief.
 
• Sweeney has now been the winning pitcher in two championship-clinching games this season, as he was also the pitcher of record for the Hawks' Liberty Bell Classic title game victory at Citizens Bank Park on April 21.
 
• The Hawks drew a season-high 13 walks in the game, with six different players drawing two each.
 
• Primrose reached base five times, going 3-for-4 with two walks, four runs scored, and two runs batted in.  Dickinson was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and was hit by a pitch to also reach base five times.  Gale and Pagano added two hits apiece; Pagano scored three times and had three RBI on the day, as did Dickinson.
 
• Primrose's home run was his 20th of the season, surpassing the previous mark set by Andrew Cossetti in 2022.  He also brought his total of runs scored this season to 65, passing Conlan Wall's 62 runs in 2024 along the way.
 
• The Hawks matched the 2002 Richmond Spiders' 22-2 record as the league's best-ever after 24 games.  The conference played a 24-game schedule during that era; the league record for conference wins in a single season is 23, set by Charlotte's 2007 squad that finished its A-10 campaign at 23-4.
 
• Down in North Carolina, Richmond finished off a come-from-behind win over Davidson that went final just as Gaines was throwing the last pitch of the game on Hawk Hill.  That result, coupled with the Hawks' victory, clinched Saint Joseph's second Atlantic 10 regular season championship in program history and the Hawks' second in four years (2023).
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks host VCU on Friday at 3:00 p.m.