What a difference being at home makes.
The Saint Louis University baseball team returned home on Wednesday, won a game and improved their home record to 9-2.
The Billikens have struggled immensely on the road and have only been able to manage a 1-8 record away from St. Louis.
Overall, the Bills are 10-10 heading into their second conference series this weekend at Louisville.
Yesterday, SLU defeated SIU Carbondale 4-2 in a well-pitched matchup. It was a tie ball game until the eighth when back-to-back doubles by senior designated hitter Mike Orrico and senior right fielder Jim Bredenkoetter gave the Bills a lead they would not relinquish.
Freshman Dave Guntorius threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball to pick up his first career win in relief.
Junior pitcher Wes Jaillet came on in the ninth to pick up his second save of the season. Jaillet has been very effective recently, and has had quality appearances throughout the last two weeks.
For Orrico, Wednesday was another successful day at the plate, which included his sixth home run of the year.
Orrico has been the Bills only offensive threat as of late, earning him Conference USA co-hitter of the week for the week ending March 11.
“I am swinging the bat great right now, but I have to be able to carry it through the rest of the season,” said Orrico.
Whether or not Orrico will continue his dominance at the plate will remain to be seen, but up until now he has been the threat in the middle of the order that the Bills have lacked in previous years.
Another aspect that has picked up for SLU recently has been their pitching. In the first conference series of the year at UAB, the Billikens only gave up 10 runs in a three-game series.
There were three strong pitching performances by juniors Ben Hutton and Jaillet and also senior Dan Shouse.
Shouse picked up the only victory of the weekend with a complete game in the Saturday affair. Shouse had seven strikeouts and only surrendered two runs in nine innings of work.
In the other two games both Hutton and Jaillet went eight, but due to shaky defense the Bills could not hang on for the victory in either game.
Jaillet said, “As a whole, we (the pitchers) are throwing the ball very well.”
SLU pitching coach Todd Whaley agreed with Jaillet. He said, “The last seven games the pitchers have thrown really well. The defense kicked it around a little bit, and that cost us.
“But, in the last six games the team ERA has been around three,” Jailet said.
When asked about the late-inning collapses that the Bills have been having, Whaley said, “We have made some bad pitches, and instead of them just being hit hard it seems like they have all been hit out of the park.
“We need to find a go-to guy who we can bring in in the eighth or ninth,” Whaley said.
“Unfortunately, (sophomore Dan) Parker and (junior Torrey) Lombardo are not fully recovered from their injuries.
“Parker has his stuff back, but his control isn’t quite back yet,” said Whaley.
Parker was very effective last year in a relieving role for the Bills. His presence coming out of the bullpen has been missed recently.
With Wednesday’s win over the Salukis, the Billikens put a stop to a recent slide. SLU had dropped five of six on the road, including two at Arkansas-Little Rock and two at UAB.
The Billikens’ bats were silent over their recent road swing, and even though the pitchers threw well, it wasn’t enough.
SLU meets the Louisville Cardinals (14-12, 1-2) in Louisville next. The Bills are going to try and take the momentum they picked up yesterday into a hostile Cardinal Stadium.
The Billikens are going to need more quality pitching performances and the offense will have to come to life to gain ground on conference-leading Houston.
