(Courtesy Saint Louis Athletics)
Alyssa Tarquinio’s two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh gave Saint Louis a come-from-behind, 11-10 victory over Fordham Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of a three-game Atlantic 10 Conference series at the Billiken Sports Center.
Saint Louis (17-9, 2-1 A-10) hit a school-record-tying five home runs, with Allie Macfarlane and Hailey Weavers going deep twice to raise their season totals to five and three, respectively. Mackenzie Peter also homered, her third of the year, as Saint Louis fought back from an 8-0 deficit.
The 2010 Billikens hit five home runs in an 18-1 win over South Dakota.
Maddie Baalman (5-3) collected the win with 5 1/3 strong innings of relief. Baalman allowed two runs, both unearned, on just three hits and one walk while striking out two.
Tarquinio’s game-winning hit followed a game-tying two-run single by Brianna Lore. The Billikens entered the inning trailing 10-8.
Peter reached on an error to start the seventh, and Elizabeth Everingham was hit by a pitch with one away. After a ground ball moved the runners to second and third, Lore smacked a single that plated both runners and advanced to second when the ball eluded the right fielder. Tarquinio followed with the game-winner to center field that brought home pinch runner Brittany Durant.
Fordham (12-12, 1-2 A-10) led 8-0 after scoring a run in the first and seven in the second.
Macfarlane’s second-inning leadoff homer put SLU on the board, and Weavers hit a two-out solo shot to make it 8-2.
Macfarlane struck again in the third, this time with a three-run, two-out blast that trimmed the Fordham lead to 8-5. The homer followed Alex Nickel’s leadoff single and Lindsay Friedman’s one-out walk.
Fordham scored two unearned runs in the fifth, but SLU got those tallies back in the bottom of the inning. Peter homered with one out, her second hit of the day, and Everingham reached second on a two-out throwing error. Macfarlane then stroked a single that scored pinch runner Josie Knesel for her career-high fifth RBI of the day, and it was 10-7 Fordham.
The Billikens drew closer on Weavers’ one-out solo homer in the sixth, setting the stage for the dramatic seventh.
Saint Louis returns to action at the Billiken Sports Center on Wednesday, March 25, hosting A-10 rival Dayton in a doubleheader that begins at 2 p.m.
