The last time that the Saint Louis University baseball team started a season 7-0, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.
The Billikens of the mid ’60s were powers in college baseball. The 1965 Billikens advanced to the College World Series and lost to eventual national champion Arizona State.
The 1966 Billikens almost made a return trip to Omaha while going 27-6 and winning their first nine games. For the first time in 30 years, the current Billikens can be mentioned in the same breath as the great Billiken teams of the past.
The 2002 Billikens have opened up the year 7-0 and have been playing with the one thing that has eluded them in years past-consistency. The Bills have used a steady diet of quality pitching and solid defense to help them to this start.
Coach Bob Hughes said, “I feel really good for the guys. They are the ones who made the commitment to be a good team. All the hard work that they put in is paying off.”
Yesterday afternoon the Billikens picked up their seventh win in a 3-2 victory over Bradley.
Senior Torrey Lombardo made his first start of the season and his first extended trip to the mound since the 2000 campaign. He went six innings and gave up two runs on three hits. His control was shaky early on, but he got into a groove in the middle innings.
Lombardo began to look like the pitcher he was in the 2000 season when he had an ERA of 0.50 before succumbing to an elbow injury that kept him out nearly a year and a half.
“It’s been awhile, but it felt great to get back out there. I felt a little awkward when the game started and had a little trouble with my control, but everything came together after the first inning,” Lombardo said.
Lombardo battled through the first inning as a pair of Braves doubled in the left-center gap. Bradley looked like they were putting together a big inning when coach Dewey Kalmer started his runners from first and second on a full count with one out.
A line-drive was hit to shortstop Joe Boyer, who quickly flipped to second baseman Jake Friedrich, and the Billikens were out of trouble and heading to the dugout.
In the bottom of the first the Billikens answered right back with a run on back-to-back doubles by Friedrich and senior right fielder Jim Bredenkoetter. The Bills threatened later in the first, but were unable to push any runs across.
Lombardo found the groove after the first and didn’t surrender a hit in the next four innings.
“I got my control back in the middle innings and found all three of my pitches. My fastball, curveball and slider were all effective, and I used the fastball and slider mostly to get people out,” Lombardo said.
The Billikens offense was quiet until the fifth when sophomore Kyle Wort singled and was sacrificed to second by left fielder Kurt Evans.
Wort was then immediately picked up by Friedrich’s RBI single to left. The Bills ended the fifth ahead 2-1, but the lead wouldn’t last for long.
In the top of the sixth, Lombardo began to lose his control as he appeared to tire slightly. A hit batsman, a walk and a wild pitch set the table for Bradley second baseman Ryan Sullivan. Sullivan’s double just inside the third base bag knotted the game at two. Lombardo escaped the sixth with no further damage and would be finished for the day.
In the bottom of the frame, it was the bottom of the Billiken order that did the job. Seven-hole hitter Pat Steinhoff walked and was pushed to second base by a Boyer single. That set the table for Wort, who promptly went the other way and drove in Steinhoff with a single. Wort’s RBI proved to be the difference maker and gave the Bills the lead for good.
Junior Zach Placzek took the mound in the seventh and looked stellar in his first appearance of the year. Placzek gave up just two hits in three innings of work on the way to his first career save.
For Placzek, the road back to the mound has been a tumultuous one. He was sidelined in 2001 with shoulder problems and eventually underwent surgery that ended his season.
“Man, it feels good to be back. It’s been about 11 months since I was last out here and it feels great. My velocity is back and my curve was better than ever, but you have to give credit to the defense. They did a hell of a job today,” Placzek said.
“We have gotten solid pitching and good defense all year. Combine that with our average of right around 10 hits and there you go,” Hughes said. “The only thing that we need a little more of is timely hitting. We had a great opportunity in the fifth, with the bases loaded and nobody out and couldn’t capitalize. We need to put some runs on the board in situations like that.”
The Billikens did just that in Tuesday’s 8-6 win over Indiana State. Junior Corey Lawson, Wort and Boyer provided the timely hitting the Billikens needed.
Wort went three for four with a run scored and three RBI in his return to his former school. Boyer also had three hits and scored two of the Billikens’ eight runs. Lawson hit his second home run of the year and tacked on four RBI to his team-leading total of seven.
Senior Wes Jaillet was on the mound for the Bills, picking up his first victory of the year. Jaillet went six and a third innings, surrendering five earned runs while tallying six strikeouts against a good-hitting Sycamore team. From there sophomores Kris Weber and Dave Guntorius closed out the game. Guntorius picked up his second save of the year in his two and a third innings of work.
“Crazy Dave just gets the job done. He’s kind of like `Wild Thing,’ and just goes out there and does whatever we ask of him,” Hughes said.
The Billikens will take their 7-0 start into this weekend’s three-game series with Northwestern. The Wildcats and Billikens will mix it up in the first-ever meeting between the teams on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Billiken Sports Complex. In both weekend games, the first pitch will be thrown at 1 p.m.
Look for the Billikens to send senior Brad Wehrfritz (1-0) to the hill Friday, with Lawson (2-0) and Jaillet (1-0) getting the weekend starts.
