So how do you win a baseball game on a day when the wind is gusting, walks are piling up, and five—yes, five—double plays still don’t seem like enough? You wait for a perfectly timed triple, a sacrifice fly, and one last game-ending twin-killing. That’s exactly how Saint Joseph’s pulled off a wild 5-4 win over Saint Louis on Friday afternoon in their Atlantic 10 opener.
The game turned in the fifth when Saint Joseph’s loaded the bases with three straight one-out walks, setting the stage for Owen Petrich to deliver the swing of the game. With the wind howling in from left field, the odds of clearing the fence weren’t great, but Petrich didn’t seem to care. He launched a grand slam through the gusts, a towering shot that just had enough to escape the ballpark and give the Hawks a 4-2 lead.
For a while, it looked like that might be enough. But when a team gifts free bases, it has a way of coming back to haunt them. Saint Joseph’s handed out four walks in the sixth, forcing in a run without the Billikens even needing to swing. The next inning, it happened again. A hit batter and three more walks brought in the tying run, this time with nobody out. It was unraveling quickly.
Then, just as it seemed Saint Louis would take control, Sam Meyer turned in the defensive play of the game. A fly ball to left appeared to be deep enough to score the go-ahead run, but Meyer made the catch, then unleashed a perfect throw home to Aidan Duda, who slapped the tag on the runner for a momentum-saving double play.
With the game still tied in the ninth, Alex Kelsey led off with a triple, a shot that took a wild carom and rolled deep enough to give Saint Joseph’s a golden chance. Two batters later, Tim Dickinson lifted a fly ball to center, plenty deep enough to bring Kelsey home with what proved to be the game-winning run.
Luke Parise, already in his second inning of work, needed three outs to close it out. A one-out single put the tying run on, but in a game full of double plays, it was only fitting that it would end with one more. A routine ground ball to short turned into the fifth double play of the afternoon, tying the most turned by a team in a Division I game this season and sealing the victory for Saint Joseph’s.
Parise earned the win with two shutout innings, recording a double-play grounder in each of them. Frank Ciccone, the Hawks’ starter, allowed three runs—two earned—on four hits over five and two-thirds innings. On the other side, Owen Kelly took the mound for Saint Louis and worked four and a third innings, allowing three runs on two hits while issuing five walks.
Duda was on base all afternoon, finishing 3-for-3 while also getting hit by a pitch. Kelsey added two hits and scored twice, including the decisive run in the ninth.
Saint Joseph’s turned double plays in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, a defensive showcase that proved to be just enough to escape with a win. The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 3 p.m., and if Friday was any indication, it might take six double plays to pull out the next one.
