The baseball Billikens have found their stride and their magic number. The Billikens scored 11 runs for the third consecutive game on Wednesday, taking down Bradley, 11-8. The win gave SLU its first road victory of the season and pushed the winning streak to four games.
The Billikens jump-started the scoring by pounding out five runs on six hits in the first inning. Jon Guyre led off the game with a single back up the middle. Ryan Crespi followed with a triple off the centerfield wall to score Guyre. Johnny Sweeney made the score 2-0 with a double down the leftfield line.
Gilbert Marlowe and Tim Landry also notched RBI singles for the Bills. A wild pitch scored Landry for the fifth run of the inning.
The Braves then rallied for three runs in the second inning. Freshman leftfielder Colby Luttrell’s double scored the first two runs of the inning. Luttrell later earned a run after a Peter Malinowski sacrifice fly.
SLU quickly regained its cushion by scoring three runs in the top of the third inning. A pair of walks helped load the bases for Ziggy Moore.
Moore knocked a single through the left side to score a run. Third baseman Tom Pinnell chipped in with a single to plate a pair of runs before Bradley starter Tyler Thornton escaped the inning with a double play.
Pinnell and the Bills struck again in the sixth inning. Sweeney stroked a single to start the inning and advanced to third when Greg Rodgers singled. After Bill Musselman was hit by a pitch, the bases were loaded for Pinnell. The freshman smashed another two-run single, to extend the lead to 11-5.
While the Billikens offense exploded for a few crooked numbers, the pitchers avoided allowing Bradley to produce a similarly big inning.
The Braves scored in the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth innings, but could only manage a single run each time.
Manager Bob Hughes passed the ball from starter Justin Wise to reliever Etienne Ratte-Delorme for the sixth and seventh innings. Billiken reliever Eric Mueller tried to halt the Bradley rally in the eighth inning but quickly ran into trouble.
Luttrell opened with a double and advanced to third on a passed ball. Malinowski followed with a run-scoring sacrifice fly to cut the Billikens lead to 11-7.
Mueller got out of the eighth inning but gave up a walk and a double to start the final inning. SLU turned to reliever B.J. Rodrigue, who quickly earned a pop-up for the first out. After an RBI-groundout made the score 11-8, Rodrigue induced a foul pop for the last out.
Every Billiken batter collected a hit, with Crespi, Sweeney and Pinnell notching three a piece. Five Billikens managed to swing for multiple hits.
Starting pitcher Justin Wise (1-0) went five innings to earn his first win as a Billiken. The save for Rodrigue was the Billikens’ first of the season.
The win was the fourth of the week for the Billikens, who swept a Saturday afternoon double header against conference foe Duquesne before beating Southeast Missouri State 11-10 on Tuesday. With a record of 15-12, SLU has already eclipsed its win total of last year by two.
Wednesday’s game at Peoria was the first of nine consecutive road games for SLU.
This weekend, SLU heads to Philadelphia for a weekend series against Atlantic 10 foe St. Joseph’s. Saint Louis’ 4-2 record in conference is good enough for a third-place tie in the standings.
