NORRISTOWN, PA - Behind a strong outing by starter Dennis Burge and the bats of John Rickards and Justin Handler, the La Salle University Baseball team shut out Xavier, 4-0, at Elmwood Park Thursday afternoon for its third Atlantic 10 Conference shutout of the season.

Burge improved his record to 3-4 with the victory, which includes a perfect 3-0 at home - all A-10 games - with a 1.75 ERA. He tossed 5.2 innings of scoreless baseball, allowed three hits and struck out two batters.

Rickards drove in the first two runs of the game with a two-out RBI-single in both the first and sixth innings, each time scoring Rich Prall, and he finished the day 3-for-4.

Handler had two hits, including a two-out two-RBI double in the seventh, which scored Matt Burns and Mike Essery.

Xavier (14-37, 4-18 A-10) only threatened to score once in the game when they loaded the bases in the third inning. Jordan Wolf reached base on an error and with two outs, back-to-back walks packed the bags.

Burge ended the frame with a groundball and the Musketeers never had a base runner touch third again.

In the fifth, Musketeer Sean Brewer hit a one-out double to deep center field and after getting the second out of the inning, Burge was relieved by John Reifsnyder.

With his team leading just 1-0 at that point, Reifsnyder got the final out of that inning, then pitched two more innings without allowing a hit, walked one and struck out one.

Gerard Breslin pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his eighth combined shutout of his career - he pitched the ninth of the other two shutouts this season as well.

The Musketeers' Mike Creevy (3-9) pitched his third complete game of the year, surrendering 10 hits and striking out five in the loss.

La Salle (17-29, 9-12 A-10) will continue the series with Xavier Friday at 1 PM and it ends Saturday with a 2 PM start.