May 9, 2010

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Visiting Saint Louis raced out to an early lead which it never relinquished to take the Atlantic 10 Conference series over La Salle Baseball with a 10-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Hank DeVincent Field.

The Billikens put a pair of runs on the board in the first and third innings and added a single run in the top of the fifth to take a 5-0 lead. Jon Myers, who ended the day with three hits, drove in three of those five runs.

Meanwhile, Saint Louis starter Bryant Cotton (8-3) was cruising, as he retired the first 10 Explorers in order. Brian Meagher, though, tripled and scored on a John Malloy single to put La Salle on the board with one out in the fourth.

However, except for a Jon Gyles double in the seventh, Cotton retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced before the call to the pen was made in the eighth. Cotton went seven innings, allowed three hits, one run and struck out five.

Saint Louis (25-23, 12-9 A-10) tacked on three more runs in the fifth and single runs in the sixth and eight to build a nine-run advantage.

Off the bench, Kevin Jones and Mike Canfarotta hit back-to-back doubles in the eighth to plate the other Explorer run in the contest.

Gyles' double in the seventh was his 17th of the year, tying for the fourth most in a single season at the school. Meagher's triple was the seventh of his career, tied for the 11th most in a career at La Salle.

La Salle (16-28, 10-11 A-10) will take Monday off before hosting Rider on Tuesday with a 3 PM start time.