PHILADELPHIA – The St. Bonaventure baseball team fell just short in their comeback effort against the Atlantic 10-leading Saint Joseph's Hawks, 11-10, on Friday afternoon.
Saint Joseph's offense was powered by Blake Primrose. The conference leader in home runs added two more on the day, bringing his season total to 19, and totaled five RBI in the contest. Alex Kelsey, who ranks second in the conference in hits, collected three more in the game.
The Bonnies has a balanced attack on the offense. Antonio Cordeiro, Christian Lamothe, and Joey Calabretti each had multi-hit games, while the latter two also had multi-RBI games.
The Bonnies scored their first run of the day in the third inning.
Chris Hoalcraft kicked off the inning by reaching base after a throwing error. In the next at-bat, Hoalcraft got all the way to third after a failed pickoff by the Hawks. Christian Lamothe made the Hawks pay by lacing an RBI single into left center, bringing Hoalcraft home to tie the game at one.
The Hawks answered with two runs in third, kicking off a streak of nine unanswered runs in the next four innings to put them ahead 10-1 going into the seventh.
In the top of the seventh, the Bonnies put another run on the board. Joey Bruno led off the inning with a walk, advancing around the bases on a passed ball and flyout. Chris Hoalcraft brough Bruno home on a sharp line drive that deflected off the Hawks' pitcher's glove for an RBI groundout, cutting the deficit to 10-2.
Saint Joseph's got a run back on a sac fly in the bottom of the seventh to make it 11-2.
In the eighth, the Bonnies surged back into the game.
In total, St. Bonaventure scored eight runs. Anthony Fernandez and Christian Lamothe each contributed RBI singles, and the Bonnies brought two more runs home on bases loaded walks. Joey Calabretti, who started the rally with a one-out single, came through in his second at-bat of the inning. Calabretti launched a bases-clearing, two-out double into the left center gap. Heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Bonnies had cut the Hawks' lead to 11-10.
In the ninth, St. Bonaventure wasn't able to finish off the comeback. The Bonnies went down in order to end the game.
David James started on the mound for St. Bonaventure. In four innings of work, the senior allowed three earned runs and struck out five. Derek Duval followed, allowing five earned runs in 2.0 innings. Eamon Giblin came on for seventh and allowed one run on two hits. In the eighth, Ryan Kucy (0.2 IP) and James Capellupo (0.1 IP) combined for a scoreless inning.
UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure have two more games in their series against Saint Joseph's. Game two will be played Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.
