(Courtesy Saint Louis Athletics)
The Saint Louis baseball team claimed it’s third consecutive Atlantic 10 regular season championship and the top seed in the A-10 Championship after tying La Salle 9-9. The Billikens had a predetermined travel curfew which led to the tie. The Bills rise to 32-19-1 and 18-7-1 in Atlantic 10 play.
The Bills entered the day tied with Saint Joseph’s at the top of the A-10 standings. With the SLU tie and Massachusetts defeating SJU 7-3, the Billikens claimed the title by half a game.
Saint Louis opened the game with a three-run first inning with an RBI single from Danny Murphy and a two-RBI triple from Michael Bozarth.
La Salle responded with two runs in the third, cutting SLU’s lead to one. The Explorers took the lead in the fifth, scoring three runs and bringing the score to 5-3.
The Billikens regained the lead in the seventh. Alec Solé lifted a sacrifice fly to deep center and defensive miscues allowed SLU to plate two more runs and take a 6-5 lead over La Salle. The Exploreres led off the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run to tie the game at six.
The Bills took the lead in the eighth with an RBI double from Danny Brennan. He then stole third and scored on an RBI single to short from Mike Vigliarolo. However, La Salle plated three in the bottom of the inning to take a 9-8 lead to the ninth.
In the ninth, SLU tied the game on a clutch two-out RBI double from Brennan.
Due to all the scoring and pitching changes (La Salle used seven pitchers, Saint Louis used six), the game took four hours to play nine innings. The Billikens had a travel curfew set for 3:45 p.m. (CT) prior to the game and the umpires declared the game end in a tie.
Saint Louis will host the 2014 Atlantic 10 Conference Championship at the Billiken Sports Center on May 21-24. The Billikens will receive the top seed and earn a first-round bye. They will play the winner of No. 4 seed VCU and No. 5 seed Richmond on May 22 at 10 a.m.
