PHILADELPHIA - Junior Jackson Ray allowed just one run over 6.2 innings on the mound and senior Connor Hinchliffe recorded his 12th save of the year as the La Salle University baseball team held off LIU Brooklyn, 4-3, from Hank Devincent Field on Wednesday.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• La Salle scored all four of its runs in the opening inning to jump on top 4-0.
• Senior Ben Faso drove home fellow senior Peyton Sorrels for the game's first run on a single through the left side.
• Sophomore Jack Cucinotta followed that up with an inside-the-park home run to left center to score freshman Tatem Levins and Faso. It was Cucinotta's sixth homer of the year and second inside-the-parker.
• Aside from two hits in the second inning, Ray shut the Blackbirds down over five scoreless innings, keeping LIU hitless in the first, third, fourth and fifth frames.
• The Blackbirds got their first run in the sixth inning on a single, but Ray retired the next two batters to leave a runner stranded.
• After Ray retired the first two batters of the sixth, junior Erik Janss took the hill and tossed 1.1 scoreless innings of relief to get the Explorers to the ninth with a 4-1 lead.
• Hinchliffe stepped on the rubber for the ninth, and the Blackbirds worked two more runs to make things interesting. But Hinchliffe got the final batter to ground out, stranding two runners to hang on for the win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Hinchliffe is now just one save away from the school record of 13 by Pat Christensen.
• Ray held the Blackbirds to only four hits over 6.2 innings and struck out a pair to pick up his second win of the season.
• Freshman Nick O'Day went 3-for-4, while Cucinotta and Levins both has two hits each.
• La Salle (24-23) has now matched the 2015 squad in wins. That team finished 24-27-1.

UP NEXT

• The Explorers will begin a three-game series against Atlantic 10 foe Dayton on Friday at 3 p.m.