Temple baseball improved its Atlantic-10 record to 4-7-1 with a victory against St. Bonaventure over the Easter weekend.
The team dropped a Saturday doubleheader before hanging on for a 12-9 Easter Sunday victory.
Jim Tully got the game-winning RBI with a triple in the top of the seventh inning to bring home Chris Krusen. Tully also had a double in the contest as Temple got 14 hits including a Krusen homerun.
Temple scored two in the first before St. Bonaventure could get on the board. But in the bottom of the second the Bonnies hit seven runs off Temple starter Chris Joyce.
Joyce gave up one more run in the bottom of the fifth before he was taken out of the game. Matt Powell came in for relief and allowed only one run on four hits by St. Bonaventure.
Kyle Sweppenhiser drove in Tully in the top of the third to make the score 7-3, Bonnies.
In Temple’s fourth and fifth, the team drove in three runs each inning. In the fourth it was Krusen’s two-run homerun and a Rob Cucinotta RBI to get the three runs. The fifth inning’s scoring came from Krusen, Cap Poklemba and Mike Jenkins RBIs. After the fifth Temple led 9-8.
St. Bonaventure scored one in the eighth on a Jon Myler homerun. But that would be all of the scoring for the rest of the contest for the Bonnies as they lost to Temple, 12-9.
Powell showed signs of coming around from last weekend’s dismal half an inning against UMass and last week’s bad outing against the University of Pennsylvania. He allowed only one run and four hits. He gave up a homerun but struck out three.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Powell’s brother Greg was not as lucky. He took the loss, his seventh, with a complete game loss. He gave up six runs on 10 hits; only two were earned runs.
St. Bonaventure’s first inning of five runs was all the team needed to deflate Powell. The Bonnies also added one in the fifth as Jason Milleisen scored on a Jeff Roma throwing error for Temple. That run was the game winner as St. Bonaventure went on to win 6-5.
Temple scored two in the fourth and two in the seventh, but Roma flied out to end the game with two runners left on base.
Jeff Rugg gave up seven runs, six earned, as Temple dropped the second game of the day, 7-6.
Cucinotta and Roma’s two RBIs apiece were not enough to get Temple into the win column, nor were Tully and Sweppenhiser’s 3-for-5 hitting on the day.
Temple led 6-5 midway through the sixth inning thanks to a two-RBI single by Roma and an RBI by Cucinotta. Temple got four runs in the inning before St. Bonaventure got up to bat.
After Mike Tegeler singled to get on base, Josh Paine took a Rugg pitch and launched it deep into left field for a two-run homerun, and a St. Bonaventure victory.
Temple plays an Atlantic-10 series against Fordham next weekend at Erny field. There will be a doubleheader on Saturday then a nine-inning game on Sunday.
Be the first to comment