May 26, 2006

Box Score

BRONX, N.Y. - St. Bonaventure gave up eight runs in the fourth inning and fell 10-5 to Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Tournament on Friday afternoon at Houlihan Park.

The Bonnies (27-20) fell into the loser's bracket and will play the winner of today's Rhode Island-George Washington game in an elimination game at 7:00 on Friday night.

St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis went through three scoreless innings before the Billikens erupted in the bottom of the fourth. B.J. Rodrigue cracked a two-run double and Greg Rodgers had a three-run double later in the frame. The Billikens recorded six hits in the fourth inning alone and also took advantage of two Bonaventure errors to knock Bonnies starter Cody Vincent out of the game.

Saint Louis tacked on two more runs in the fifth against junior Ryan Kerr to make it a 10-0 game.

The Bonnies rallied to trim their deficit to 10-5 with two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh, but Saint Louis relievers Etienne Rattey-Delorme and Brian Mueller held St. Bonaventure off the scoreboard the final two innings.

Junior left fielder Joe Rizzo went 3-4 with a two-run home run while junior right fielder Brian Pellegrini went 2-5 with a double and a three-run home run. Pellegrini's blast was his 31st career homer, tying the school record held by Mike Rapacioli. Junior shortstop Josh Perkins and junior third baseman Matt Mardeusz each had two hits. The Bonnies did record 12 hits on the day to Saint Louis' 13.

Vincent took the loss and fell to 6-4. He allowed eight runs (four earned) on seven hits in four innings. Senior Sean Bruet came on to pitch three shutout innings for Bona.

Saint Louis, the upstart No. 5 seed, is now 3-0 in the tournament. The Billikens (31-26) advanced into Saturday's championship round and will have to be beaten twice in order to lose the A-10 title.