May 20, 2010
Box Score
AMHERST, MA - La Salle Baseball inched closer to an Atlantic 10 Conference postseason appearance as the Explorers rode Eric Van Wyk once again and used a late home run to post a 5-3 come-back victory at Massachusetts Thursday afternoon at Earl Lorden Field.
Van Wyk improved to 7-1 on the mound and La Salle is 8-1 in his nine conference starts (all series openers), after throwing seven innings, scattering eight hits, allowing three runs, two on solo home runs, and striking out two.
Pat Christensen threw the final two innings for the Explorers to pick up his 10th save of the season, which sets the school record previously held at nine by Gerard Breslin. He allowed two hits and struck out one to earn the record breaker.
Massachusetts (17-27, 11-14 A-10) got on the board first with a solo home run in the second inning off the bat of Peter Copa, his team-leading eighth of the season. Brian Baudinet hit an RBI single a frame later to give the Minutemen a 2-0 lead.
Brendan Norton (in first video clip above) tied the score in the fourth as he singled to left scoring John Malloy and Jon Gyles, which gave Norton 30 RBI for the season.
Minuteman starter Nick Serino went seven innings for his team, allowed four hits, two runs, walked five and struck out eight, before being pulled for relief in the eighth. Massachusetts had just given him a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh on a solo home run by Kyle Multner.
Van Wyk, after the RBI single in the third, had retired 11-of-12 batters, which included a nice stop by Norton in the sixth with Baudinet, who had a lead-off single and stole a bag, standing on second with one out (video clip two).
After the Multner home run, he sat down the last three Minutemen he faced before the Explorers gave him a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth.
La Salle (21-28, 14-11 A-10) greeted reliever Joe Popielarczyk with a Brian Meagher single (video clip three) to left and Malloy's 19th career home run, putting the Explorers up 4-3 (video clip four).
After a pair of strikeouts, Jeff Flax, who was 3-for-4 with a double, reached first with a single, moved to second on an error, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored when Chris Umstead legged out an infield single to give La Salle a 5-3 cushion.
The game was then turned over to the freshman, who allowed a harmless one-out single in the eighth. In the ninth, he struck out his 50th batter of the season (video clip five) and got the final batter to line to second (video clip six) to end the game.
La Salle's 8-1 record in series openers is the best ever at the school (the previous best was five) and is tied with Charlotte for the best record to open a series by any A-10 Conference team. Van Wyk's seven wins is the fifth-most in a single-season at the school and the best in series openers among A-10 teams,, while Christensen's 25 appearances is tied for the sixth most.
The Explorers have now won four in a row in the A-10 for the sixth time in their history, and two of those times have happened in 2010. Their four road league wins are the most since 2006 (5) and they have now clinched their first winning record in conference play.
La Salle has been putting up some great numbers this season, which are all the best in a single season since the start of the 2000 season. Those include highest batting average, most runs, most hits, most triples, most wins, and tied for most saves. They are also 10 RBI shy, 11 total bases shy, five strikeouts shy and one stolen base shy of matching the best numbers since 2000.
Lastly, the Explorers have four players this season with 30 or more runs, the most since 1999 (8); five players with 50 or more hits and one with 48, the most since 1999 (6); five players with 30 RBI or more, the most since 1999 (6); and four pitchers with 50 or more strikeouts, the most ever.
La Salle will continue its three-game series at UMass with game two on Friday with first pitch slated for 1 PM.
