Baseball | April 19, 2018

PHILADELPHIA – After playing six consecutive games in the City of Brotherly Love, the La Salle University baseball team will hit the road this weekend for a three-game Atlantic 10 Conference series with Massachusetts.

HOW TO FOLLOW
La Salle (11-24, 2-7 A-10) at Massachusetts (10-17, 3-9 A-10) 
Amherst, Mass.
Friday – 3 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH
Saturday – 1 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH
Sunday – 12 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH
 
Twitter: @LaSalleBase   #LaSalleBASE

PHILLY HIT PARADE
La Salle piled up 14 hits in each of its two contests this week, as the Explorers took on Big 5 rivals Penn and Villanova. The Explorers have posted double-digit hits in 18 of their 35 games thus far. Despite scoring seven runs on 14 hits at Penn on Tuesday, the Quakers scored 12 runs in the second inning, leading to a 17-7 win over the Explorers. La Salle bounced back against Villanova on Wednesday though, as freshman Tommy Toal drove in junior Peyton Sorrels for the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth en route to a 7-6 home victory. Freshman Jack Cucinotta hit his first career home run, while fellow rookie Michael Jenkins struck out seven over six innings on the mound.

The victory was the 11th of the season for the Explorers under first-year head coach David Miller, already exceeding their win total from 2017 with 18 regular season games remaining.

HITS KEEP COMING FOR FASO
Junior Ben Faso went a perfect 5-for-5 in the win over Villanova with two doubles, a run and an RBI. He also was 2-for-5 with two runs, a double and an RBI at Penn. Faso already has 55 hits for the season, leaving him just 16 away from being among the program's top-10 single season hits leaders. The Media, Pa., product worked a 16-game hitting streak earlier in the season, which ranks fifth in school history. Additionally, Faso has 11 doubles this season and only needs three more to crack the program's top-10 single season list.

STAT STUFFERS
The Explorers are 6-5 in their last 11 games and are 2-2 in the A-10 during that stretch. La Salle ranks second in the conference in hits, averaging nearly 9.5 per game. The Explorers are also fifth in the league in doubles with 60, while they are sixth in batting average (.266), homers (16), slugging percentage (.364) and triples (7). Meanwhile, the La Salle pitching staff is sixth in both shutouts (2) and strikeouts per nine innings (8.2).

Faso leads the A-10 in hits, and his 1.62 hits per game average ranks 14th in the nation. He is also second in batting average (.379), fifth in doubles (11) and 10th in RBI (28). Senior Austin Constantini has been the toughest to strikeout in the A-10 all season long, and his 18.0 at-bats per strikeout average is 10th best nationally. Constantini is also fourth in the league in hits with 48. Sorrels is fourth in the conference with three triples, while Toal is fifth in sacrifice bunts with five. Freshman pitcher Colin Kennedy ranks sixth in the A-10 with 10.16 strikeouts per nine innings, while sophomore Matt Holt is seventh with a 4.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Sophomore Jackson Ray (1-1) leads La Salle starters with a 4.58 ERA, and sophomore Sebastian Martinez (4-0) leads the team and is 11th in the A-10 with four wins.

SCOUTING THE MINUTEMEN
Massachusetts enters the weekend with a 10-17 overall record and 3-9 mark in league play but has had some struggles as of late. The Minutemen are on a three-game losing streak and have lost 11 of their last 12 games, including a 1-7 A-10 mark during that skid. UMass fell to Siena, 5-1, on Wednesday. Ryan Lever leads the team with a .304 batting average, while Eddy Hart hits .297 with 22 runs and a .441 slugging percentage. Nolan Kessinger leads the squad with 18 RBIs. Justin Lasko (2-2) has been the team's ace with a 3.19 ERA and 29 strikeouts, and he will start game one. Sean Harney (1-0, 3.51 ERA) and Brooks Knapek (2-4, 5.76 ERA) will pitch the second and third games, respectively.