March 28, 2010
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - With a Jeff Flax sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning that plated Brian Meagher for the game-winning run, La Salle Baseball completed its three-game Atlantic 10 Conference series sweep of the visiting Dayton Flyers with a 3-2 victory at Hank DeVincent Field Sunday afternoon.
Dayton had just knotted the game at 2-2 in the top of the frame before the Explorers loaded the bases with one out as Brendan Norton singled in between Meagher and Jon Gyles both being hit by pitches.
Flax hit a shallow fly ball into right field and, after the catch, Meagher raced home as Aaron Dunsmore's throw home sailed up the line and gave La Salle the 3-2 edge.
Freshman Pat Christensen, who was in his second inning of relief, worked a tricky ninth, as the first two batters reached base by walk and error. However, he got the final three outs, included a grounder to first to end the game and, with it, he picked up his second win of the season.
Cody Weiss started the game for the Explorers and worked seven scoreless innings, scattering just three singles, walking two batters and striking out five. At one point, he retired 11 straight Flyers from the third through the sixth innings.
Meanwhile, La Salle managed to give him a two-run lead with single runs in the fourth, when Norton scored on a Gyles' RBI double, and seventh, an unearned run.
In the inning, Marc Schoch and Eric Kammler, who with Norton, were the only two players from either team to have two hits, hit back-to-back singles with one out. Dan Klem hit a potential double-play ball, but the throw to first was low and allowed Schoch to score.
Weiss faced one batter in the eighth and he walked his third batter of the afternoon, which brought in Christensen. Mitchell Nelson followed with a single and both moved into scoring position on Zach Blanchette's bunt.
Dayton (9-14, 0-3 A-10) scored its first run on Joe Gayda's infield single, then plated its next when Zach Jacob grounded a ball to second, but a throwing error kept runners on first and second.
Still, with one out, Christensen struck out Dunsmore for the second out, walked Cole Tyrell which loaded the bases, but ended the threat with a Jonathan Castine fly out to center.
The series sweep for La Salle is the fourth in the last 10 years. They took three at Rhode Island on April 7-8, 2001 with scores of 4-1, 4-1, and 21-10 and swept Saint Joseph's in March 2003 (3-2, 5-3, and 9-8). The Explorers last swept a series on May 18-20, 2006 at Temple with scores of 7-4, 12-2, 9-6.
Dayton, who was 21-6 last year and won the A-10 regular season, was only swept once in 2009, on April 4-5 at Rhode Island.
The Explorers have now beaten Dayton in a series three out of the last four times dating back to four years ago March 24-26, 2006, when La Salle allowed just one earned run, but won two-of-three, winning 3-0 on Friday and Sunday, but lost 1-0 on Saturday, a pitching performance almost matched this weekend with the four earned runs allowed.
They also beat the Flyers in a May 2007 home series with wins of 5-3 on Friday and 4-3, Sunday, sandwiched around a Saturday 5-4 loss in 12 innings.
John Malloy singled in the first inning to make it 19 straight conference games with a hit and 41 straight games reaching base. With his two hits today, Norton batted .500 for the series, has hit safely in nine straight games and has a team-leading 12 multi-hit games.
La Salle (7-14, 3-0 A-10) will stay at home, where the Explorers are 5-3 in 2010, for its next four, hosting Villanova on Tuesday in the first round of the Liberty Bell Classic starting at 3 PM. They will also host Duquesne in their next A-10 series starting Thursday.
