March 21, 2009
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -
The St. Bonaventure softball team dropped both games of its Atlantic 10 opening series to Saint Louis on Saturday afternoon at the Billiken Sports Center.
The Bonnies dropped the first game of the doubleheader 4-1, while failing to score a run in the nightcap in a 4-0 loss.
With the pair of defeats, the Brown and White fall to 2-13 overall and 0-2 in A-10 play. Saint Louis, meanwhile, improves to 8-16 on the season and 2-0 in the Atlantic 10.
Junior Sherri Thompson got the start in the first game of the doubleheader and went the distance allowing all four runs on 10 hits, while striking out four.
After the Bonnies stranded a runner on third in the top of the first inning, the Billikens took their at-bats in the bottom of the frame and put the first run of the game on the scoreboard. After a single by leadoff hitter Kristin Nicoletti and a double by senior Rachel Heet, junior Nicki Jost would make the score 1-0 Saint Louis after hitting a sacrifice fly to left field that would bring home Nicoletti. Thompson would wiggle her way out of further damage in the inning by retiring the next two batters she faced to get out of the jam.
The Brown and White would rally to tie the game up in the very next inning. Sophomore Kara Morenus started the top of the second by getting on base due to an error by the Billiken shortstop. Morenus would advance to second on a sacrifice groundout and move over to third after senior Andrea Swanger singled to left field. On the very next pitch Morenus would cross the plate thanks to a passed ball slipping past the Saint Louis catcher to tie the game up at 1-1.
SLU would take the game over from there, however, pushing across two runs in the third inning and another run in the fourth off Thompson. Jost singled to right field to ignite the Billikens two-run third inning. Freshman Erin Cejka added a single through the left side before senior Katie Johns put both runners in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Freshman Kelly Flanagan hit a sacrifice fly down the right-field line to make the score 2-1 which is all the offense Saint Louis starter Kelcie Matesa would need.
Matesa would shut the Bonnies bats down for the remainder of the game allowing only two more hits the rest of the way, while striking out five to pick up the win.
The second game of the afternoon was a one-sided affair due to the Brown and White's lack of offense. St. Bonaventure only had two hits, both singles, the entire game off Saint Louis starting pitcher Stacy Gillette. Gillette went a complete game in the nightcap allowing just the two hits while striking out eight to earn the win.
Saint Louis would get all the offense it would need for the game in the bottom of the first inning. Nicoletti and Heet reached on back-to-back walks by Bonnies starter Erin Nargi and got into scoring position on a passed ball on Morenus. Jost drove in the first run of the frame with a single through the left side of the infield, and Cejka's sacrifice fly to right gave the Billikens a 2-0 lead.
Nargi went the distance for the Brown and White in the second game giving up four runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits while striking out four in the loss.
St. Bonaventure will be back in action on Wednesday, March 25, when the travel to Moon Township, Pa. to play a doubleheader against Robert Morris. The first game of the series is set to start at 3:00 p.m.
