March 14, 2010

Box Score

LEXINGTON, VA - La Salle Baseball dropped its final game of its spring trip to the VMI Keydets, 11-1, at Gray-Minor Stadium Sunday afternoon as senior John Malloy extended his hitting streak to a team-best 10 games.

Malloy, who set the school record with a 26-game hitting streak as a freshman in 2007, now has four hitting streaks of at least 10 games. Those include a 13-gamer also in 2007, and a 12-gamer in 2008, while his best last year was nine straight.

Also with the hit, he reached base for the 12th time this season and, dating back to last year, has safely reached base in 32 straight games. The last time he failed to get on base by hit, walk, or hit-by-pitch was on April 10, 2009.

It did take until his third at-bat and the sixth inning until Malloy got his hit, and it was just the second hit allowed by VMI starter Sam Roberts, who improved to 3-0 with the win.

Roberts allowed a single to Tony Negrin, which led off the game, then walked just two batters until the Malloy single.

In the inning, Negrin led off with a strikeout but reached base on a dropped third strike. Malloy then hit a one-out single before the inning ended with a double-play grounder.

In the eighth, Malloy would register an RBI on a groundout as Negrin, who drew a walk and was on base all four times he batted, scored the lone Explorer run.

VMI (14-1) was led by Jordan Ballard, who went 3-for-4 with four RBI and hit a solo home run.

La Salle (1-11) will take a couple days off before taking to the road one more time, at Saint Peter's Wednesday at 3:30 PM. The Explorers will then host 11 of their next 12 opponents at Hank DeVincent Field, a spot where they have won 11 games each of the past two seasons.