April 19, 2008
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle University Baseball team got production from all nine of its starters as each produced at least two runs in the game to help the Explorers take the second game of the three-game Atlantic 10 series versus Fordham, 14-10, at Hank DeVincent Field, Saturday.
John Rickards led the charge with four runs batted in and two runs scored, while Zack Feierstein scored three times and also drove in two. The Explorers jumped out 6-0 after the second inning, as they scored two in the first and four more in the second, and never trailed in the contest.
In the first, Rickards drew a two-out walk and on the first pitch to TJ Chism, stole second. The second pitch by Fordham starter Peter Kennelly was wild, and Rickards advanced to third.
The Rams then called to their pen, due to an injury to Kennelly, and John Young finished the walk to Chism. He then stole second before RJ Hollinshead singled back through the middle plating both.
A pair of errors helped La Salle add four more in the second. Mike Dertouzos reached on an error at third, which was followed by a Brian Meagher single.
Feierstein reached on an error by the pitcher on a sacrifice bunt loading the bases for John Malloy. He singled through the right side to drive in one, Justin Handler walked to score another, and then Rickards and Chism hit sacrifice flies to center to put La Salle up 6-0.
An RBI single by Handler in the fourth inning scoring Feierstein was sandwiched by three spots in the third and fifth by the Rams. Two errors in the fifth allowed two unearned runs to score, which pulled Fordham to within 7-6.
La Salle (8-29, 3-11 A-10) responded with six in the bottom of the frame to take a 13-6 advantage. Kevin Jones and Dertouzos reached on back-to-back one-out singles, followed by a squeeze play by Meagher.
Feierstein followed with an RBI single, Malloy doubled for his third hit of the day and Handler drew a walk to load the bases for Rickards once again. This time, he blasted a triple off the right field fence clearing the bases, then scored on Chism's single.
For Rickards, it was his 16th career triple, moving him into the top spot all alone in career triples - he was tied with Steve O'Donnell (1986-89) at 15. He also moved into a tie for the eighth spot for all-time hits (194), seventh in total bases (324) and 10th all-time in RBI (110).
Feierstein would add his second RBI of the day in the seventh, giving La Salle an eight-run lead with a sacrifice fly to center in the sixth inning.
La Salle starter Drew Gerhart threw seven innings, allowed seven hits, four earned runs and struck out four to earn his second win of the season and is now 2-4 in 2008. The Explorers turned to Shane Frangiosa to close out the game.
Fordham (20-17-1, 6-8 A-10) put four runs on the board in his first inning, but again a costly error allowed three of them to score. He finished the game allowing just one earned run in two innings and struck out one.
Kennelly suffered the loss for the Rams, dropping to 1-2 for the season. Angelo Ponte threw an effective final 3.1 innings for Fordham, allowing just one run on four hits.
Thanks to the production of the entire offense, La Salle scored 14 runs for the first time in an A-10 game since May 21, 2005 at Massachusetts (14-6). It is the most runs scored at home since March 15, 2006 (14-6 over Villanova), but it has been almost 10 years since La Salle scored 14 runs at home in an A-10 game - May 8, 1999, 15-11 versus Xavier.
La Salle will look to win its first A-10 series of the season when they host the Rams in the final game of the set, Sunday at 12 PM.
