March 18, 2011
Box Score
ST. LOUIS, MO- It was a pitching duel Friday evening at the Billiken Sports Center between the La Salle Explorers and Saint Louis Billikens. On opening night of Atlantic 10 Conference play, senior DJ Guinn and Saint Louis junior Kelcie Matesa pitched a gem for their respective squads, but the Billikens found a way to solve Guinn in the bottom of the seventh inning. Saint Louis got two runners aboard with two out before freshman Kelsey Biggs provided the dagger when she hit an rbi-double to down the Explorers 1-0 in walkoff fashion.
"This was our best game so far," Head Coach Brianne Brown said. "With our A-10 schedule starting tonight, our team realized this is the important part of the schedule now. Doing well here is our main goal for this season, so I think our team definitely approached tonight's first game with a different attitude."
Guinn's line was impressive Friday evening as she went the full 6.2 innings in which she struck out a career-high nine batters and did not walk a batter. The last time Guinn struck out at least eight batters was nearly one year ago to the day (March 20, 2010) when she fanned away eight Central Connecticut State batters.
Guinn retired 19 of the first 21 batters she faced before Saint Louis began to put together its rally in order to claim the winning run.
"This was probably DJ's best game this season," Brown said. "She had nine strikeouts and she was really hitting all her spots all game long."
Pitching from both sides delayed the offenses until the bottom of the third inning when Saint Louis senior Kristen Nicoletti got the first hit of the ballgame with a single to senior Ali Shepherd at short stop. At that point, Guinn retired the nine of the first 10 batters. Guinn didn't lose focus after the hit, as she went on to set down nine of the next 10 batters.
The Explorers looked to get some offense going when sophomore Liz Reed opened the fourth inning with a leadoff single up the middle, but Kelcie Matesa was able to avoid any kind of damage from the Explorers.
La Salle had two runners on with two out in the top of the seventh after junior Shannon Skomorucha's base hit and a walk issued to freshman Megan Hodgson. Matesa tossed freshman Kati Cooper one of her 13 strikeouts to get Saint Louis out of the jam.
With the heartbreaking loss, La Salle drops to 2-14 on the season. The Explorers will remain in St. Louis for a Saturday afternoon meeting with the Billikens, which is set to begin at 1 p.m. La Salle will be concluding its current 17-game road swing Saturday before hosting Saint Peter's at West Field on Tuesday.
