Baseball | April 23, 2018
PHILADELPHIA – Fresh off its first Atlantic 10 Conference series win of the season, the La Salle University baseball team returns home for a Tuesday non-conference matchup with Maryland Eastern Shore at Hank DeVincent Field. The Explorers will then head to Georgetown on Wednesday.
HOW TO FOLLOW
La Salle (13-25, 4-8 A-10) vs. Maryland Eastern Shore (9-31, 5-13 MEAC)
Hank DeVincent Field
Tuesday – 3 p.m. |
LIVE STATS
La Salle at Georgetown (14-23, 2-4 Big East)
Bethesda, Md.
Wednesday – 4 p.m. |
LIVE STATS
Twitter:
@LaSalleBase #LaSalleBASE
EXPLORERS SECURE FIRST A-10 SERIES
The Explorers picked up their first series victory of the season over the weekend, gaining ground in the A-10 standings with a 2-1 series win at Massachusetts. After dropping a tough 3-2 walk-off battle on Friday, La Salle responded with a pair of one-run victories of its own, 5-4 and 4-3. In the game two win, the Explorers scored three runs in the eighth inning and held off the Minutemen for their first conference road win of the year. Then La Salle scored three runs in the ninth in the final game and withstood a furious UMass comeback to clinch the series. Prior to the UMass series, La Salle defeated Villanova, 7-6, as freshman
Jack Cucinotta hit his first career home run.
THE LAST TIME THE EXPLORERS AND HAWKS MET…
La Salle and Maryland Eastern Shore met earlier this season, a 12-1 road win for the Explorers. La Salle exploded for 15 hits and broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth before rolling past the Hawks. Five players posted multi-hit games, including three hits apiece from seniors
Austin Constantini and
Brian Dudeck, while sophomore
Ryan Guckin belted a two-run homer.
STAT STUFFERS
Junior
Ben Faso ranks 31st in the nation and leads the A-10 with 1.54 hits per game, while he is second in the conference in both hits (57) and batting average (.368). Faso, who is also fourth in the league with 12 doubles, is just two doubles away from entering the school's single season top-10 list and is only 14 hits away from the top-10 in single season history in that category. Constantini is still the A-10's toughest to strike out, ranking 16th nationally with a 15.6 at-bat per strikeout average. He is also in the top 10 in the league in hits (51), batting average (.327) and on-base percentage (.407). On the mound, Constantini is tied for seventh with four saves.
SCOUTING THE HAWKS
Maryland Eastern Shore enters Tuesday's matchup on a three-game losing streak with a 9-31 overall record and 4-15 road mark. In their last series, the Hawks were swept by Delaware State, which La Salle defeated, 6-4, just two weeks ago. In the last meeting between the Explorers and Hawks, Dominic Deblaise went 3-for-3 and Tyler Friis was 2-for-5 for Maryland Eastern Shore. Deblaise leads the Hawks with a .327 average to go with 17 RBIs. Caleb Walston (1-0, 7.54 ERA) is expected to take the hill, while sophomore
Niko Jenkins (0-2, 3.75 ERA) is projected to make his first start for the Explorers.
SCOUTING THE HOYAS
Georgetown begins the week at 14-23 overall with a solid 8-3 home record. Though the Hoyas were swept by St. John's in their last series, they had previously won seven in a row. Ryan P. Davis leads the team with a .312 batting average, while Eddie McCabe is hitting .301 with a team-best 28 RBIs. Wednesday's projected starting pitcher Owen Lamon (1-3, 7.38 ERA) is expected to square off against La Salle freshman
Alexarmando Diaz (0-0, 6.57 ERA).
ON DECK
This weekend, La Salle will welcome A-10 foe Saint Louis to Philadelphia for a three-game weekend series beginning with its Spring Tailgate Series game on Friday.
