Xavier University Athletics
Xavier University
UMass
Xavier Clinches A-10 Berth with Win Over UMass
05.17.07 | Baseball
May 17, 2007
CINCINNATI - It took extra innings but Xavier finally clinched a berth in the 2007 Atlantic 10 Championship field as the Musketeers downed visiting Massachusetts, 4-3, in 10 innings on Thursday afternoon at Hayden Field. A wild ending led to sophomore Neil Lindgren crossing the plate to break the tie. The win moves XU to 26-28 on the season and 16-9 in conference action, while UMass falls to 21-24 overall and 12-13 in the A-10.
Lindgren started the final inning by drilling a one-hopper off the shortstop to earn the single. Senior Jordan Wolf then gave himself up and sacrificed Lindgren to second to put the winning run in scoring position with one out. An intentional walk to Sean Farrell left Adam Lipski at the plate to win the game. Lipski hit a bouncing ball up the middle, which the shortstop snagged and tossed to the second baseman but the relay throw to first was not in time. On the throw, Lindgren rounded third and continued home to score the winning run on a wide throw to the plate by the first baseman.
The Musketeers got the offense going early as the Blue and White put up three runs in the opening inning. Adam Pasono earned a walk to start the game before Lindgren and Wolf each singled to load the bases. Farrell drew an RBI-walk to score the first run before a sacrifice fly by Lipski made it 2-0. The final run would cross the plate after the UMass first baseman let a ball through his legs to allow Drew Schmidt to reach and Wolf to score to make it 3-0 after one inning.
The Minutemen would rally and plate one run in the sixth on a Xavier error that allowed Mike Donato to score from second. The visitors would also get two in the eighth to tie the game after Donato homered to left center to begin the inning and Bryan Adamski singled up the middle to plate Ryan Franczek from second before Pasono gunned down Adam Tempesta trying to advance to third.
Lindgren was the only Musketeer to have two hits on the afternoon as he finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Wolf, Lipski, Schmidt and Andy Zellers each had a single.
Senior Mark Janszen came in during the eighth to relieve starter Bill Konecny and picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season after going the final 2.1 innings. Janszen (5-2) allowed just one hit over the 2.1 innings and struck out one. Konecny had a no-hitter going into the sixth before giving up three runs on five hits with three strikeouts to get the no decision.
The two teams will continue the series tomorrow afternoon as game two will begin at 2:30 pm at Hayden Field. Xavier will have sophomore Charlie Leesman (4-2, 3.53 ERA) on the mound with UMass sending freshman right hander Jared Freni (2-4, 5.16 ERA) to the hill.
