Coming off a series win over the Dayton Flyers, the Billiken baseball team took on the Saint Joseph’s Hawks over the Easter Holiday for a three game set on Thursday, April 5, Friday, April 6, and Saturday, April 7.
All three games resulted in a loss for the Billikens and dropped their season record to 21-10 with a pedestrian 5-4 in A-10 Conference play.
After a great start to the season, including an incredible 13-game win streak, the Billikens have seemed to cool off a bit.
In the first game of the series, the Billikens fell 3-2 in a 13-inning affair highlighted by a wild pitch by SLU pitcher Nick Bates, which allowed St. Joseph pinch runner Tim Craig to score the winning run for the Hawks in the top of the thirteenth.
The Billikens had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the inning but Matt Adomowicz was thrown out at home plate trying to score from first on a double by C.J. Rose.
Alex Alemann started for the Billikens and threw a quality 6.1 innings giving up two runs on seven hits, striking out five and walking none before turning the ball over to the bullpen.
James Norwood threw 2.2 innings in relief for the Billikens allowing one run on one hit.
The Billikens also used Travis Parker who gave them 3.2 innings of shutout baseball with five strikeouts.
In the second game of the series the Billikens put themselves into a hole early giving up 3 runs in the first and added one each in the fifth and sixth to make it 5-0 before the Billikens could even get on the board.
The Billikens were able to get two runs back in the bottom of the seventh, however. The ninth inning was one of drama as the Billikens attempted to mount a comeback that ultimately fell short. Grant Nelson started the inning for the Billikens with a single to center field.
Jerry Mancuso then moved him to second on a ground out. Following a single by Senior Conner Gandossy that scored Nelson, C.J. Rose drew a walk to put runners on the corners for Junior Mike Levine.
Levine cracked the second pitch he saw but the Hawks center fielder was able to make the grab with his back to the wall to squash the comeback attempt and end the game.
In the finale of the series the Billikens were blasted by the Hawks 10-4 on the back of an 8-run fourth inning that saw the Billikens use four pitchers to try and stop the Hawks assault.
The Hawks added their final two runs in the seventh.
The Billikens were only able to break through when Coach Darin Hendrickson sent in the reserve players in the eight.
The Bills were able to tally 4 runs after the change but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the deficit.
For the second straight game the Billikens were unable to solve the Hawks starting pitching as Alex Pracher threw seven shutout innings, striking out eight while not allowing a walk. In total the Billikens used seven pitchers in the game.
Nelson was the main spotlight for the Billikens, going 5-11 in the series due to his new approach at the plate.
“I was more aggressive early in the count and I did not miss the fastballs in the zone that were thrown to me,” said Nelson.
“Our team needs to revert back to playing the way we know how to play. We need to come out with a lot of energy and competitiveness like we had during our winning streak,” added Nelson.
The Billikens will try to do just that on Wednesday, April 11 when they will travel to SIUE for one game to Xavier to open a three game set starting on Friday April 13 and continuing on to April 15.
