RICHMOND, Va. – Fourth-seeded Saint Louis shocked regular-season champion Saint Joseph’s behind a near-record 23 runs in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship second round opener, stymying the Hawks down the stretch and advancing to the winners bracket semifinals via a 23-8 victory Wednesday afternoon at The Diamond.
The Billikens (32-21) earn a rest day, locking down a position in Friday's semifinal against the winner of No. 2 overall Davidson and sixth-seeded George Mason. The top-seeded Hawks (27-23-1) fall into the consolation bracket and will play Thursday at 3:00 pm against the winner of No. 5 Richmond and No. 7 Rhode Island.
The 23 runs ranks as the second most in any round of the A-10 Championship. The record sits at 25 runs, scored by Rutgers against West Virginia in 1981. Additionally, Saint Louis' 23 serves as the fifth time in league history a team has breached the 20-run plateau in the double-elimination tournament, and the first time since 1999.
Potent offenses were on display as SLU and the Hawks traded runs through the fourth inning, with Saint Joseph’s holding a 7-6 lead through a scoreless fourth frame. The game took a dramatic turn in the fifth, when the Saint Louis starter Henry Litman and his relief Colby Downard went into lockdown, holding the Hawks to just three hits from the fourth to the eighth innings compared to seven across the first three innings.
The shift allowed the Billikens to score 14 unanswered runs through those five frames. Travis Rinker’s RBI single in the ninth tacked on one additional run for the SJU when Conlan Wall crossed the plate, but Saint Louis had also posted a trio in the top of the final inning to set the final margin at 15.
Litman (6-3) earned the win, surrendering eight hits and seven runs with four walks and two strikeouts through 5.0 innings. Downard threw 3.0 frames and allowed two hits and no runs before Evan Gray closed out the ninth with two hits and one run given up. The Saint Louis defense played tight behind its battery, which tallied just six strikeouts, to keep the Hawks off the bases.
Six different Saint Louis players tallied multi-hit days, led by Tyler Fogarty’s impressive 5-for-5 outing. Fogarty, Austin Neuweg and Cam Redding each had a home run in the contest, with Redding registering five RBI, good for a game high. SLU generated 20 total RBI with six players recording more than one, including four by Neuweg.
Saint Joseph’s offense was anchored by three-hit performances from Wall and Luke Zimmerman, as the latter hit a bases-clearing triple to collect two RBI en route to a team-high three for the day. Four Hawks had multi-hit games. Will McCausland (5-3) took the loss, throwing 4.1 innings with eight hits, eight runs and three strikeouts. SJU used five pitchers, each one giving up multiple runs.