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SAINT LOUIS – The St. Bonaventure baseball team (11-20, 3-9 Atlantic 10 Conference) mustered just five hits and was kept off the scoreboard by first-place Saint Louis (29-11, 11-1 A-10) as the Billikens completed the three-game series sweep of the Bonnies with a 4-0 win Sunday afternoon at the Billiken Sports Complex.
The lone bright spot for St. Bonaventure continues to be Jason Radwan (pictured) as the senior was the only SBU batter with multiple hits as he went 2-4 to increase his league-leading and top-10 national batting average to .422. Joel Rosencrance, Thaddeus Johnson and Nick Lohrer added the other three hits for Bonaventure, which was shut out for just the second time this year.
Saint Louis opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the 1st off Bona starter Eddie Gray, who was making his first A-10 appearance since March 30 against Butler. However, Gray settled down and kept the Billikens off the scoreboard for the final three innings of his outing. The southpaw was relieved by Asa Johnson in the 5th, and SLU got to the junior by scoring a run each in both the 5th and 6th innings to extend to a 4-0 lead.
The Bonnies threatened to score in both the 7th and 8th innings, but left two runners on base each inning – their best two chances to push across runs as they stranded just seven total on the afternoon.
Gray (0-5) took the loss as he went four innings, scattering five hits and allowing two earned runs. The redshirt senior walked two and also struck out one. Johnson also went four innings, with a similar line of three hits and two runs, one of which was earned. The right hander also walked two.
SLU's Clay Smith tossed 7.1 innings of five-hit baseball en route to picking up his fifth victory of the season. Matt Eckelman threw the final 1.2 innings to earn his second save of the campaign. Smith was dominant as he struck out eight and walked only one as he capped three starting performance on the weekend by the Billikens in which they allowed just five runs and pitched to an ERA of only 1.67.
After playing 28 of its first 31 games of the season away from home, St. Bonaventure now starts a stretch of eight games in nine days at home, beginning with a doubleheader Tuesday against Bucknell. First pitch of the two 7-inning games from Fred Handler Park is set for 2 p.m.
