Taking a cue from the wind gusting out of center field, the St. Louis University baseball team blew out Bradley University yesterday.
The Billikens opened up a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning to score 10 runs en route to an 11-1 romping of the Braves at the Billiken Sports Center.
The offense put the runs on the scoreboard, but pitching was the key to victory. Ben Hutton had his best outing of the year: no runs on just four hits; four strikeouts in six innings. The sophomore from Edwardsville is third on the team with 18 strikeouts.
“He pitched a lot more aggressive than in his past few outings. It was a big improvement for him,” said SLU head coach Bob Hughes.
While Hutton was getting outs with ease, SLU’s offense responded in the third. Third baseman Brandon Shockley led off with a walk, followed by a bunt single from short stop Paul Miles.
Center fielder Eric Constable singled through the hole scoring Shockley and moving Miles to second. Left fielder Brian Haddock then loaded the bases with a bunt single down the third base line. Second baseman Nick Steiner singled past second, scoring Miles, which lead Bradley to make a pitching change after a 3-0 deficit.
It didn’t get any better for the Braves, however, as catcher Adam Shea singled to score Constable and Haddock. Steiner scored on first baseman Jim Bredenkoetter’s ground out, while Shea scored on a wild pitch and right fielder Jon McLaughlin walked.
After 12 SLU batters had already been to the plate, Steiner finally grounded out to end the inning.
SLU wouldn’t score another run, but the damage had been done. It was the Billikens’ largest offensive output in one inning this season. The inning wiped away the frustration from all the close losses in the Bills uneven season.
“The past two weeks we’ve played pretty good baseball,” Hughes said.
“The last eight losses could have gone either way, so we have to become a little more consistent,”
Among the standouts against Bradley, Eric Constable had three hits, three runs, and two RBI’s. Brian Haddock had two hits, one run, two RBI and one walk. Adam Shea got three hits, with one run and two RBIs.
The Billikens raised their record to 12-16 overall with the win. SLU is 4-3 over their last seven games.
The Billikens, who start just two seniors in the field, are beginning to mature. The young pitching staff from last season is “learning how to pitch”.
This weekend, the staff lowered its ERA to 5.27. No Bills staff has had an ERA under six since 1993.
Hughes has noticed that the growing pains of last year are long gone, as this Billiken squad is developing with every game.
Seasoned veterans Steiner and Shea are in SLU’s top 15 in career doubles, homeruns, and RBI.
Bredenkoetter (.363 batting average) and McLaughlin (.356 batting average) have also been lighting up opposing pitchers.
The Billikens are starting to come around and compete with the better teams in the league and around the country.
Over the weekend the Bills played three games against Southern Mississippi (7-1 C-USA, 19-11 overall). They lost the first two outings 0-2, 2-4 before coming back to win the third 8-4.
Tuesday night they lost to a good Missouri team (19-11) 16-8. This weekend they return to action at Tulane.
“These guys have been a huge improvement over last year’s team,” Hughes said.
