March 30, 2007

Box Score

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Xavier exploded for five runs in the second inning to win its fourth straight Atlantic 10 conference game over Saint Louis by a final of 11-0. Senior Bill Konecny had his best outing of the season and threw a career-high nine innings of two-hit baseball with six strikeouts to pick up his first win of the season. The Musketeers, winners of their last four straight, improve to 8-18 overall and 4-0 in A-10 action, while the Billikens drop to 5-22 on the season and 1-3 in conference play.

Senior Adam Lipski started of the five-run second with a single to left center before a single by the current A-10 Rookie of the Week, Zac Richard, put runners at first and second with no outs. Neil Lindgren would advance the two with a sacrifice bunt to allow freshman Drew Schmidt to drive in Lipski with a single through the left side. The Musketeers were not done there as senior Matt Waskerwitz singled through the right side to plate Richard and leave runners at first and second with one out. Jordan Wolf would deliver the final blow in the inning as the senior blasted his third triple of the season to left center, scoring Schmidt, Adam Pasono and Steve Brown to leave the Blue and White on top 5-0 after one and a half innings.

Both offenses would be held in check until Xavier put together a two-out rally in the top of the sixth. Pasono drew the two-out walk and then stole second to put himself into scoring position before Brown singled to left to score his classmate and make the score 6-0.

XU would tack on two insurance runs in the eighth and three more in the top of the ninth to round out the scoring. The Blue and White would finish with 11 runs on 11 hits to remain perfect in the conference, marking the first time that a Musketeer squad was an unblemished 4-0 since 2002. That 2002 squad actually started a perfect 6-0 before falling in the seventh game of the season to St. Bonaventure.

Wolf paced the Blue and White on offense as he finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and a triple. The senior also had three of XU's eight RBIs. Lipski and Richard finished with two hits and an RBI apiece with Lipski also notching a triple. Pasono, Schmidt, Waskerwitz and Brown each had a hit with Schmidt, Waskerwitz and Brown each tallying an RBI.

The key player in the game was the senior Konecny as he went a career-high 9.0 innings, allowed just two hits and three walks to the 31 batters he faced and struck out six Billikens. The six strikeouts for the senior were two shy of his career high which he set two seasons ago against Northern Illinois.

The Musketeers will return to action tomorrow afternoon as both teams get set for game two of the series. The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 pm EST with XU's Charlie Leesman (0-2, 6.26 ERA) getting the start. Saint Louis will send senior Ryan Bird (0-1, 3.00 ERA) to the mound.