Baseball opens A-10 play with series loss to Davidson
On the weekend of Major League’s Baseball’s Opening Day, the Saint Joseph’s University baseball team opened their Atlantic 10 season with a three-game road series at Davidson University.
St. Joe’s had won four of their previous five games before taking on Davidson. The series opened with a 10-7 loss for the Hawks. St. Joe’s held a lead for a good part of the game, but one late rough inning took the potential victory from them. The Hawks opened the top of the first inning with a run when senior Cal Jadacki walked with the bases loaded and one out.
The Wildcats answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning before striking again for two more runs in the third inning.
A big fifth inning for St. Joe’s allowed the Hawks to regain the lead. Senior Brian Lau doubled in junior Marc Giacalone. Next, Jadacki followed with a walk before junior Dom Cuoci homered to center field, plating three runs and giving St. Joe’s a 5-3 lead.
In the seventh inning, Davidson exploded for six runs to strip St. Joe’s of its lead. Cam Johnson led off the inning for the Wildcats by reaching on a fielding error, later scoring as an unearned run. Davidson junior Alec Acosta, who reached on a single, scored for the only earned run of the inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, freshman Wildcat Brett Centracchio hit a grand slam to score four more unearned runs before the close of the inning.
“It’s obviously a difficult momentum swing to overcome,” Head Coach Frtiz Hamburg said. “When the wheels come off that quickly, that’s a real challenge. We were up 3-2 going into the eighth and gave up the solo homerun and then four this later, they were up 5-3. That’s been a challenge that we’ve had all year – handling the back end of the game, and it hasn’t gone favorably for us to date.”
Davidson would expand on their lead once more in the eighth inning with an extra run to take a 10-5 lead headed into the bottom of the ninth. Senior Peter Sitaras hit a solo homerun and Giacalone scored on a single by sophomore Charlie Concannon, but that’s all the Hawks would add before losing by a final score of 10-7.
Game two was more favorable for St. Joe’s, resulting in a 7-1 win. The Hawks struck first again when freshman Kadar Namey scored Jadacki from third with a sacrifice fly. No other runs were produced until the sixth inning, when St. Joe’s struck for three more on a home run by Cuoci. The seventh inning featured two more runs for St. Joe’s. Lau singled home Giacolone for one run and Jadacki singled home Lau for the other.
Davidson was able to scratch one run across in the seventh. The Wildcats’ Max Bazin’s single knocked in Jake Sidwell for Davidson’s only run of the game.
St. Joe’s added one more run in the top of the ninth inning when Concannon led off the inning with a homerun.
Senior Pat Vanderslice picked up his second win this season for St. Joe’s and graduate student Tim Ponto collected his first save of the season as well. Concannon, Jadacki and Cuoci each tallied three hits in the game and Cuoci added three runs batted in.
“I thought, from the top to the bottom of the order, a lot of guys worked counts, were able to draw walks and I think this weekend we were able to string together hits,” Cuoci said. “We ended up putting up seven runs. We ended up hitting a couple homeruns, but they weren’t all solo homeruns. There were guys working in front, doing a good job, getting on base.”
Hamburg, while pleased with the offense’s performance, saw some areas for improvement for the Hawks’ lineup as well.
“I think the lineup was better,” Hamburg said. “I will say we had opportunities where we could’ve put together some rallies and perhaps pushed the momentum further in our favor, but to Davidon’s credit, they made good pitches and good plays and we weren’t able to do that.”
St. Joe’s and Davidson faced off in the rubber match on April 2. This time, the Wildcats were the ones to open the scoring. Wildcat senior Tyler Agard doubled to left field scoring Bazin in the third inning. Agard scored later in the inning when Acosta singled to left center.
St. Joe’s responded in the fourth inning. Senior Taylor Boyd singled down the right field line to score Lau. In the seventh inning, the Hawks were able to tie the game. Sitaras scored on a sacrifice fly from junior Matt Maul to make the game 2-2. Cuoci homered in the eighth inning to give the Hawks’ a 3-2 lead and their first of the game.
In the bottom half of the inning, Davidson’s Will Robertson responded with a home run of his own to tie the game back up at three apiece. Davidson’s Justin Lebek singled in Eric Jones to regain the Wildcats a one run lead. Before the third out, Bazin contributed to the cause and singled home Sidwell, giving Davidson a 5-3 lead, where the score would stand until the final out.
Despite losing two of the three games in the series against Davison, Hamburg thought the team performed well overall.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think we pitched badly,” Hamburg said. “All three starts that we got this weekend gave us a chance to win all three games. It was tough. When you look at the numbers, I think we out-hit them [Davidson], we out-scored them for the series, we out-pitched them and we just lost the series by the runs. That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Following the series, St. Joe’s has a 6-14 overall record and 1-2 conference record. The Hawks are 2-13 away from home so far this season.
“I think that as a team, we’re collectively buying in,” Cuoci said. “I think that we all agree that we’re a better team than our record shows. Coming into the year, we were projected to win the A-10 and to finish high in another ranking. The coaches have high expectations for us. I think it’s all just the idea of us buying in together.”
Cuoci and the coaching staff are proud of the way their team has played so far, despite the unfavorable record.
“I think Coach [Hamburg] said it as best as you can,” Cuoci said. “He said he was proud of our effort. Everyone’s trying to do the best at their job. It’s not just the pitching staff or the hitters. It’s the whole thing, the three parts of the game – the defense, pitching and hitting. I think if we all just buy in and work hard, then things can turn around.”
The Hawks will host George Mason University in a three-game series from April 7-9.
“This game [baseball] is not like a football game, where you can evaluate it once a week,” Hamburg says. “We’ll be back on the field [soon]. That’s kind of the beat of the game. You get to rehearse it so many times, or play it, or whatever you want to say. I still think that we’re a very capable ballclub and that we have a good bit of talent. Moving forward, I think the biggest thing that we need to figure out the bullpen.”
The Hawks are currently trying to find a steady, consistent arm for the back end of the bullpen. Hamburg believes it’s something that will eventually evolve for St. Joe’s
“At some point in time, somebody’s going to figure it out,” Hamburg said.
