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University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
Saint Louis
Rally Falls Short For UMass In 4-3 Loss To Saint Louis
April 23, 2010 | Baseball
April 23, 2010
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AMHERST, Mass. - The UMass baseball team had an opportunity to rally in the bottom of the eighth, but Saint Louis held off the Minutemen, taking game one of the Atlantic 10 series, 4-3. UMass, which now sits at 8-21 overall and 5-8 conference play, will close out its three-game set against the Billikens (20-19, 8-5 A-10) with a doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday, Apr. 24, beginning at noon on Earl Lorden Field. The schedule change is the result of an unfavorable weather forecast for Sunday.
After sending Saint Louis down in order in the top of the first, the Minutemen batters jumped on Billikens' hurler Bryant Cotton early with a pair of one-out singles by juniors Eric Fredette and Matt Gedman. The next batter, senior Mike Donato, was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Cotton worked out of the jam unharmed by inducing a ground ball double play off the bat of senior Brian Baudinet to end the inning.
With one away in the top of the fourth, Danny Brock gave Saint Louis a 1-0 lead, lofting a 3-1 pitch over the fence in right for his 14th home run of the season.
Then in the bottom half of the inning, Mike Gedman hit an answering shot for UMass to put the Minutemen on top, 2-1. With Baudinet on courtesy of a walk, Gedman launched a 3-1 pitch to the top of the practice rink in right for his fourth homer in the past three games.
The advantage was brief, however, as the Billikens followed up with a three-run top of the fifth. Mike Levine lined a one-out double into right and Cody Cotter took a 3-2 pitch for ball four, setting up a two-run double by J.D. Dunn. After Dunn moved to third on a ground out, Jon Myers dropped a single into right to bring the run in and put Saint Louis up by a pair at 4-2.
UMass threatened to rally in the bottom of the eighth as freshman Ryan Cusick ripped a leadoff double into right center and scored when the next batter, Fredette, sent a single back up the middle to cut the deficit to 4-3. Matt Gedman followed with a successful sacrifice bunt to move Fredette into scoring position. Fredette then went to third on a single by Donato, but was forced to hold up as the ball was hit on the ground through the left side of the infield. Donato advanced to second on a wild pitch, representing the would-be go-ahead run with two down, but Cotton prevented any additional scoring with an inning-ending ground ball.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth, Mike Gedman nearly tied the score for UMass, but his high fly ball was hit to the deepest part of the ballpark, brought down by Saint Louis centerfielder Dunn on the warning track.
In a contest where both pitchers threw complete games, junior Nick Serino was out-dueled and took the loss (1-4) for the Minutemen. He allowed four runs on eight hits with four walks and eight strikeouts. Cotton let up three runs on seven hits with one walk and eight strikeouts to log the win (7-3) for the Billikens.
Fredette stretched his hitting streak to 11 straight games with a 3-for-4 effort at the plate and an RBI for UMass. Mike Gedman was 1-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored.
Myers was the lone Saint Louis player to log multiple hits as he finished 2-for-4 at the dish with an RBI, while Dunn drove in a pair and scored once.
