MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The St. Bonaventure offense applied pressure throughout and junior right-hander Michael Salina was nearly untouchable on the mound, providing a winning combination for the Bonnies baseball team in a 13-3 triumph at Middle Tennessee Saturday night.
St. Bonaventure improved to 6-3 on the season with its second consecutive win in the Volunteer State, scoring in all but one inning to force the run-rule to go into effect and lock down the win in seven innings.
Sophomore Antonio Cordeiro set the tone with a two-out double down the line in the first, plating two runs after one of MTSU's five errors on the night opened the door.
Bonaventure doubled its lead in the fourth on run-scoring singles from Jayce Tharnish and Chris Hoalcraft, both with two out as well.
While Salina kept rolling on the hill, his offense kept adding insurance.
In the third, Bona scored three more times to expand the lead to 7-0. The visitors had their only scoreless frame in the fourth, but Harrison Kaufman made sure the drought didn't last long as he homered to lead off the fifth before another Hoalcraft two-out single through the right side made it 9-0 Bonnies.
That was more than enough for Salina who was on cruise control.
Bona's starting pitcher impressed scouts in attendance with six innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine with just one walk. The only run plated by MTSU against him was unearned and he needed just 81 pitches to complete his work as he dominated the Blue Raiders (6-4).
Hoalcraft collected four hits in five at-bats to match his career-high, driving in three runs. He combined with Tharnish to key the offensive output atop the lineup as Bona's first two hitters went 6-for-8 with four runs and five RBIs. Tharnish also stole a career-best three bases in a spark plug role for the Bonnies.
Vercollone continued his strong start to the year with a 3-for-4 night and two RBIs and Kaufman registered three RBIs as well.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH JASON RATHBUN
"It was great to see our offense get off to a great start today and give Salina a chance to settle in and pound the strike zone. It was a great effort to start the weekend 2-0 and we'll look to finish up the round robin play strong tomorrow."
UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure will wrap up round robin play at MTSU by taking on UT Martin in the weekend finale. The Skyhawks are 1-1 this weekend after falling in 10 innings to MTSU on Friday night, 13-12, before blanking Old Dominion, 6-0, on Saturday. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. Central/5 p.m. Eastern.
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