Box Score April 30, 2011
Box Score
St. Louis, Mo. -
With a quick turnaround from last night's 1-0 loss, Fordham turned to its freshman starting pitcher Chris Pike on Saturday to turn the tide against the Saint Louis Billikens at the Billikens Sports Center. Pike delivered his finest performance of the season to date, as he threw a complete game, six-hit shutout of the Billikens in a 4-0 Fordham win.
With the win, Fordham improves to 27-16 overall, 8-6 in the Atlantic 10, while Saint Louis moves to 23-19 on the year, 5-9 in the league.
Much like Friday night's game, pitching took center stage as Pike and Saint Louis' Zack Smith posted zeroes through the first four innings of play, allowing just one hit each, before Fordham struck in the top of the fifth inning.
Fordham's Brian Kownacki was hit by a pitch to start the frame. Stephen McSherry would lay down the sacrifice bunt, but Smith would commit an error, allowing Kownacki to go third base. Ryan Maghini then grounded into a double play, which allowed Kownacki to score the game's first run.
The Rams added two more runs in the sixth and one in the seventh for a 4-0 lead. In the sixth, Nick Martinez extended his hit streak to 11 games with a double to right center, followed by an infield single by Ryan Lee. Chris Walker then plated Martinez with an RBI-single through the left side. After a sacrifice bunt from Ryan David, Tim Swatek connected for an RBI-single up the middle for a 3-0 lead.
Fordham's run in the seventh came on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, as Maghini scored from third. Maghini and Alex Kenny led off the frame with back-to-back singles, followed by a walk to Lee, which had loaded the bases.
Pike (5-1) took care of the rest for Fordham, as Saint Louis had only two base runners reach third base in the game. He scattered six hits and walked four to register his fifth win of the season, while the Fordham defense turned three double plays on the afternoon.
At the plate, Fordham had only seven hits in the game, led by Martinez and Maghini, who were both 1-for-4 with a run scored. David however had his 13-game hitting streak snapped, as he went 0-for-2 with a sacrifice hit and a walk.
The same two teams will match-up for the rubber game of this series on Sunday at 1:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 PM local time.
