Box Score | Box Score (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle baseball team jumped out to a 6-0 lead over Villanova on Friday afternoon at Hank DeVincent Field and hung on for an 11-9 victory in its home opener. The Explorers tallied 13 hits on the day, the fourth consecutive game they've reached double-digit knocks.

"It's very nice to beat a quality team like Villanova," head coach Mike Lake said postgame. "It wasn't just the offense. Shane Hollman kept us in this game by throwing five shutout innings. He did a very good job keeping us in the game and that's what gave us a 6-0 lead."

Hollman (W, 2-1) silenced Villanova's batters through five innings, effectively locating his fastball with a steady mix of changeups and breaking balls to keep the Wildcats off-balanced. He ran into trouble in the sixth when the first three hitters he faced banged out hits. Mike McLeod came in relief as the Explorers escaped the inning up 6-2.

La Salle (3-13) opened up a 2-0 lead on one furious swing off the bat of Kevin Conroy (2-4, 2 RBI, R). The redshirt junior rocketed a two-run homer over the left field wall in the bottom of the second. Cameron Johnson (2-5, 3 RBI) joined the hit parade three batters later when he doubled down the left field line to bring in two more.

The Explorers turned a four-run lead into a six-run lead in the fifth. Joey Ravert (1-3, RBI, R) flied out to center to plate Mark Williams (1-2, RBI, 2 R, 2 BB) followed by an RBI double by Mark Welling (1-4, RBI).

Villanova (4-11) scratched the scoreboard for two in the sixth but the home team used a two-run bottom of the frame to up its lead to 8-2. That lead was cut to 8-6 when the Wildcats posted a four-spot in the top of the seventh. Adam Cherry recorded all three outs in the inning including a strikeout with two runners on to end the frame.

The momentum seesawed back in the Explorers favor in the bottom of the seventh when they took advantage of a Villanova defensive miscue. Ravert doubled down the right field line to lead off the inning and was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Welling. After Conroy popped out, Baron hit a feeble grounder to the shortstop who threw it away. George Smith Jr walked a pair of singles by Johnson and Williams bumped the lead to 11-6.

The Wildcats added three runs in the top of the eighth but were unable to complete a comeback. In the ninth, Shawn O'Neill sandwiched a flyout in between a pair of strikeouts to earn his first save as an Explorer and seal the 11-9 win.

For the game, La Salle outhit the visitors 13-9. The Explorers will host UConn Saturday afternoon at 4:15 as part of the Big 5 Baseball Bash.

NOTES: Baron has reached base in every game this season and carries an 18-game reached base streak dating back to last year…Johnson recorded his eighth multiple hit game on Friday, most on the team…Williams extended his hitting streak to a team-high nine games…Hollman has started on the hill in two of La Salle's three wins…As a team, La Salle is slashing .399/.456/.561 in its last four games (2-2). They've tallied 59 hits and 37 runs in the span