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SAINT LOUIS – Despite a solid pitching performance, the St. Bonaventure baseball team (11-18, 3-7 Atlantic 10 Conference) dropped a tough 3-1 decision to first-place Saint Louis (27-11, 9-1 A-10) Friday night in the first game of a three-game series.
Bona starter Andrew Revello (3-5) allowed three runs over 6.2 innings on just four hits before giving way to Asa Johnson, who didn't allow a hit over his 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. The Bonaventure bats were stymied by Alex Alemann, who tossed 8 innings of one-run baseball en route to picking up his sixth win of the season for the Billikens.
The Bonnies produced just six hits on the night, coming from three different players as leadoff hitter Joel Rosencrance went 2-4 with a double and a run scored, Austin Ingraham (pictured) also went 2-4 with the lone SBU RBI and Billy Urban tallied a 2-4 effort at the plate with a double.
Revello struck out eight and walked five as the right hander allowed just one run each in the 3rd, 5th and 7th innings. The Ohio native threw 118 pitches as he shut down the nation's 42nd-ranked offense and second-ranked A-10 offense. Johnson faced just one over the minimum as he walked one in his relief appearance.
Saint Louis – the preseason A-10 favorite which won 41 games last season – tallied the game's first run on a sacrifice fly. The Billikens, who hit .296 as a team, received a two-out solo home run from Alex Kelly – his team-leading seventh round-tripper of the year, to make it a 2-0 game in the 5th.
Bonaventure got one run back in the 6th inning as Rosencrance led off the frame with a double and eventually scored on a base knock up the middle by Ingraham on the first pitch of the at bat. However, SLU tacked on the insurance run in the 7th on a double and went on for the series-opening victory.
Bonaventure had a great opportunity to get back in the game in the 9th inning when it loaded the bases with no one out on two SLU errors and an Ingraham single. However, Saint Louis pitching struck out Eric Jutca and then induced Michael Meredith into a game-ending double play.
The win for the Billikens is the fourth in a row over the Bonnies, dating back to last year. However, those four wins have come by a total of just five runs as SLU claimed three one-run victories last season before Friday's two-run triumph.
St. Bonaventure will look to get back on track in the second game of the series on Saturday afternoon. The start time of the game has been pushed back to 3 p.m. Eastern from the original 2 p.m. start time due to the threat of severe earlier in the day. Rosencrance is expected to get the start on the mound for the Brown and White.
