Close to having an answer.
In an up-and-down week, the Saint Louis University baseball team seems close to having an answer to their recent woes.
The Billikens haven’t been consistent as a team since the second week of the season, but yesterday, for the first time in weeks, all members of the team were on the same page.
The Billikens pounded out 14 hits and went on to an 11-7 victory over Eastern Illinois. The Billiken offense clicked and did the little things well. The Bills hit for power, moved up runners and even got aggressive on the bases.
Senior Jim Bredenkoetter provided the power, hitting a home run and knocking in six.
Bredenkoetter was on base four of the five times that he came to the plate. He tied his career high with the six RBI and displayed the agresssiveness at the plate that he showed early on in the year.
Juniors Jake Friedrich and Joe Boyer did the little things and moved Billiken runners into scoring position when needed. This set the table for the heart of the order, who came up with the big hits that were needed.
Junior Corey Lawson provided a spark on the basepaths. Lawson stole three bases while junior Ryan Murphey and Boyer each stole one. The Bills took the extra base and pressured Eastern Illinois into making mistakes.
Senior Kurt Evans’ streak of six games with a double came to an end, but Evans got on base and scored two runs.
“We were much more aggressive today. We looked for fastballs in the zone and then hit them. We weren’t waiting around for breaking balls, we just hit the fastballs,” Evans said.
It was a totally different team than the one that took the field on Tuesday when the Billikens lost to Southwest Missouri State by a score of 12-1.
The Bills couldn’t decide which team was going to show up over the weekend in New Orleans then they took on conference foe Tulane.
In the first game of the series the Billikens were overwhelmed by the Green Wave, losing 16-2. Tulane outhit SLU 20-6 and pounded out 15 earned runs. The pitching that had been good got pounded like a side of beef in Rocky.
Pitching coach Todd Whaley believes that the Billikens were consistent early, but have been inconsistent with their location since.
“Agaist Tulane we were falling behind early and then had to come in with a hitter’s pitch and you can’t do that, especially in conference. It wasn’t until the third game of the series that we pitched on the inner half of the plate,” Whaley said.
In the second game of the series SLU outhit Tulane 11-10, but the Green Wave held off a late Billiken rally and took the game 7-6.
Evans was 4 for 5 in the game, had two runs scored, a RBI and a stolen base, but it wasn’t enough to put the Bills over the hump.
In the final game of the series, Lawson threw another complete game and led the Billikens to the 6-2 win. It was Lawson’s fifth complete game in six starts.
“Lawson has been there every time that he has taken the mound. He has done a great job. He hasn’t been extended except against Tulane, he has thrown between 90-100 pitches in every game,” Whaley said.
The Billikens are back in action this weekend with a conference series against UAB at the Billikens Sports Complex.
Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m. and each of the weekend games start at 1 p.m.
