Baseball | April 30, 2018

PHILADELPHIA – The La Salle University baseball team will begin a nine-game road stretch with five away contests this week. The Explorers will play back-to-back games against Villanova and LIU Brooklyn before opening a three-game series at Rhode Island this weekend.

HOW TO FOLLOW
La Salle (14-29, 4-11 A-10) at Villanova (6-29, 0-9 Big East)
Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Tuesday – 3:30 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH

La Salle at LIU Brooklyn (21-19, 10-7 NEC)
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Wednesday – 3 p.m. | LIVE STATS | WATCH

La Salle at Rhode Island (16-25, 6-9 A-10)
Kingston, R.I.
Friday – 3 p.m. | LIVE STATS | LISTEN
Saturday – 1 p.m. | LIVE STATS | LISTEN
Sunday – 12 p.m. | LIVE STATS | LISTEN

Twitter: @LaSalleBase   #LaSalleBASE

LAST TIME OUT
La Salle hosted the top team in the Atlantic 10 Conference over the weekend, with Saint Louis (28-15, 14-1 A-10) coming away victorious. On Friday, junior Ben Faso went 2-for-4 and Mike Anthony and Matt Patricio threw four scoreless innings in relief, but the Explorers were held to three hits in a 5-0 defeat. Freshman Colin Scanlon had a career-high six strikeouts over four relief innings on Saturday, but the Explorers fell 15-1. On Sunday, sophomore Ryan Guckin homered in an 11-1 setback. Prior to that, La Salle downed Maryland Eastern Shore, 6-1, before dropping an 8-5 game at Georgetown. Sophomore Dylan Evans went 3-for-3 with two doubles in the win over the Hawks.

STAT STUFFERS
Faso remains among the A-10's top hitters with three weeks remaining in the regular season. He is second in hits (63), fourth in batting average (.360) and seventh in doubles (13). Faso, who already owns the fifth longest hit streak in team history, is nearing the program's top 10 single season lists for hits and doubles, needing just eight hits and one more double to crack the top 10. The toughest to strike out in the conference, senior Austin Constantini ranks 15th nationally with a 16.0 at-bat per strikeout ratio. Constantini is also seventh in the A-10 with 56 hits thus far. He is eighth in the league in saves with four, while freshman Colin Kennedy is seventh in strikeouts per nine innings with a 9.33 average.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Villanova has not won a game since falling to La Salle, 7-6, on April 18 as part of a 10-game losing streak. The Wildcats were swept by Wagner and Seton hall in their six games since facing the Explorers, including an 11-2 defeat to the Pirates on Sunday. Furthermore, Villanova is 0-15 at home this season. Ryan Toohers leads the team with a .288 batting average, four home runs and 23 RBIs. David Gulati has scored a team-high 30 runs and is hitting .282 with eight stolen bases. As a team, the Wildcats are hitting .223 and own a 4.60 ERA.

In the Explorers' win over Villanova earlier in the year, Faso was a perfect 5-for-5 at the plate, while freshman Jack Cucinotta hit a two-run homer. Toohers went deep for the Wildcats, but freshman Tommy Toal drove in junior Peyton Sorrels for the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to propel La Salle to victory.

SCOUTING THE BLACKBIRDS
LIU Brooklyn enters the week with a winning record and has been efficient at home with a 9-5 mark in home games. Although the Blackbirds are 1-3 in their last four games, they defeated Pittsburgh, 5-1, the last time out. LIU Brooklyn has a 4-2 record against common opponents (Manhattan and Fairleigh Dickinson). Anthony Warneke is tops on the team with a .313 average while driving in 26 runs and stealing ten bases. Luis Arias de los Santos contributes a .290 average to go with 20 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. As a team, the Blackbirds are batting .257 with an ERA of 4.83.

SCOUTING THE RAMS
Rhode Island has caught fire in recent weeks and will enter this weekend's series on an eight-game winning streak. During that stretch, the Rams have gone 5-0 at home and 5-0 against A-10 teams. Rhode Island has been climbing the A-10 leaderboard after taking a 2-1 series over Massachusetts and sweeping Saint Joseph's. However, the Rams have not played since April 24, and prior to the win streak, they were just 2-4 at home. Jackson Coutts leads the squad in batting average (.308) and RBI (14), while Greg Cavaliere is hitting .288. Matt Murphy (3-3) is fourth in the A-10 with a 2.20 ERA, while Nick Johnson (1.21 ERA) is third in the conference with six saves.