May 7, 2006

Box Score

CINCINNATI - Xavier scored five runs over the last five innings but could not overcome a 7-1 advantage by visiting Temple and fell 7-6 in the final game of the Atlantic 10 series on Sunday afternoon at Hayden Field. The loss drops the Musketeers to 14-36 on the season and 4-17 in conference action, while Temple improves to 11-35 overall and 5-14 in A-10 play.

The Musketeers jumped on the board first as freshman Steve Brown extended his team-high 15-game hitting streak with a single in the first. Brown's single would be followed by singles by Sean Brewer and Adam Lipski to load the bases for Andy Zellers. Zellers would take the count full before drawing the RBI-walk and put XU up 1-0 after the first inning.

Temple would score the next seven runs before Xavier would have a chance to respond. The Owls would plate one in the second, four in the third off a grand slam and two more in the fifth off another homerun.

Xavier would not quit and answered with five runs over the last five innings but it was not enough. The blue and white would score two in the fifth after four straight hits by Adam Pasono, Brown, Neil Lindgren and Brewer that was ended by an outstanding diving catch by the Temple third baseman on a line drive by Adam Lipski that doubled off Lindgren.

In the seventh, Lindgren would blast his team-leading sixth homerun of the season. The homerun was a two-run shot over the left field wall that scored Brown who started the inning with a single. An RBI-single by Jordan Wolf in the bottom of the eighth would end the scoring and leave the Musketeers just short.

Xavier's top four batters claimed nine of the 14 hits on the afternoon. Freshmen Pasono, Brown and Lindgren combined for six of the nine with Brewer having a memorable senior day and ending 3-for-5 with one RBI. Brown and Brewer each had three hits on the game, while Lindgren and Matt Waskerwitz each notched two and finished 2-for-4. Lindgren led the team with two RBIs and drew his team-leading 40th walk of the season and improved his national ranking for walks per game at 0.83. Both Lindgren and Brown finished the series with a .385 average (5-for-13 each) with Brown leading the team in runs with four and Lindgren leading in slugging percentage at .615.

Senior Steve Sakosits suffered the loss in his final appearance at Hayden Field. Sakosits allowed seven runs on eight hits and struck out six in his four innings of work. Dan Graham came into the game and gave the Musketeers a chance to come back as he finished his five-inning outing allowing no runs and only three hits while striking out two.

Xavier will have the week off before heading to La Salle for their next Atlantic 10 series on Thursday. The first game is slated for a 3:00 pm start at DeVincent Field. Junior Mike Creevy will get the nod on the hill for the first game of the three-game set.