May 17, 2007

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - A bases-loaded RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning by Ryan Crespi gave homestanding Saint Louis a 3-2 victory over Dayton in the opener of a three-game Atlantic 10 Conference baseball series on Thursday evening. With the loss UD (20-32, 8-17 A-10) falls to 6-11 on the year in one-run games including a 1-7 mark in Atlantic 10 contests.

Scott Dunwoody provided nearly all the offense on the night for the Flyers, who were out hit 7-6 by the Billikens. Dunwoody had a one-out solo homer down the right field line in the first inning. Then after Frank Tedesco and Kevin Miller had back-to-back doubles to begin the third inning, Dunwoody picked up another RBI on a groundout to the shortstop.

Freshman Cole Tyrell added two singles while senior Michael Massa had a base hit of his own to pull within three hits of the UD career record with two games remaining in the season.

Senior Chris Rubio suffered the loss after a strong start that carried the Flyers into the ninth inning. The righthander allowed just one unearned run on five hits with three strikeouts through the first 8.0 innings of play. Then in the ninth inning, SLU drew a leadoff walk followed by a single to put runners at first and second. After a sacrifice bunt moved the Billiken pair into scoring position, a wild pitch knotted the game at 2-2. Rubio would then intentionally walk the next batter before being replaced by classmate Phil Ernst.

Ernst came on a repeated the feat with another intentional walk, which was his first walk allowed this season. Then Ryan Crespi ended the game with the bases loaded and one out on a single to left field that allowed B.J. Rodrigue to score and give Saint Louis a 3-2 victory.

UD and SLU will continue the series on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. The game can be followed live with Gametracker at www.DaytonFlyers.com.