By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
After a one-win weekend, the baseball team travels to St. Louis for a three-game series against the Billikens. The series begins tonight at 7:30 and concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.
“St. Louis is probably the best team in the conference,” Coach Larry Sudbrook said. “They won 41 out of 42 games last year and they return almost the entire team. They’re in first place in the Atlantic 10 now; they’re very good.”
Including this weekend’s series against the Billikens, the Bonnies (11-17, 3-6) have five remaining conference series remaining in the 2013 season. Charlotte will serve as this year’s A-10 championships host with the tournament scheduled for May 22-25.
The team hopes to fare better than it did during last season’s trip to St. Louis. The Billikens swept the Bonnies, winning by one run in each game.
“We played very well last year, we just didn’t play well enough to beat them,” Sudbrook said. “They’ll probably be a little better this year than they were last year. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.”
Wednesday afternoon, the Bonnies headed to Binghamton to take on the Bearcats in a single game, winning the contest, 4-2. Senior redshirt left-hander Eddie Gray got the start for the Bonnies — a move to test the waters after he experienced soreness in his shoulder a couple weeks ago, according to Sudbrook.
“We did throw Eddie one inning today,” Sudbrook said. “He wasn’t at 100 percent, but he was healthy. He is going to start one of the three games this weekend but he won’t be able to go very far because he hasn’t pitched in two weeks, but he’ll throw one of the games.”
Sudbrook said with a team as good as St. Louis, the Bonnies need to take at least one game from the Billikens.
“It’s really important when you go out to a place that’s as good as St. Louis on the road that you at least win one of them,” Sudbrook said. “We’ve really put ourselves in a position where we not only have to at least win a game out in St. Louis; we have to get some sweeps.”
Last weekend, the team took on UMass, winning the first game (4-3) but falling to the Minutemen in the final two games (9-3, 6-5).
Redshirt junior Andrew Revello started game one of Saturday’s doubleheader for the Brown and White, only giving up six hits.
“Revello pitched a great game,” Sudbrook said. “We outplayed them the first game completely from start to finish.”
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Bonnies placed the ball in the hands of junior right-hander Asa Johnson.
“Asa didn’t have his changeup,” Sudbrook said. “That’s his most impressive pitch, so he got whacked around and they completely outplayed us to win that game.”
In the final game of the series Sunday, freshman Steven Klimek took the mound but got into some trouble. The Bonnies went to the bullpen for right-hander Joel Rosencrance to pitch in relief.
“He (Klimek) was okay, he didn’t walk too many people,” Sudbrook said. “He got hit around a little and we were down 4-0 after three innings, so we did go to Rosencrance.”
In the first three innings of his outing, Rosencrance shut out UMass, striking out five and walking only one. The Bonnies offense followed Rosencrance’s example and took back the lead, 5-4. However, the Minutemen returned to the field, getting three hits off the right-hander and taking the lead back in the bottom of the seventh. Rosencrance was credited with the loss after throwing 4.1 innings and giving up six hits and two runs.
Sudbrook said Rosencrance pitched strong innings, but the Minutemen brought the heat.
“They got three hits and sometimes you just have to give the other team some credit,” Sudbrook said.
The 1-2 series outcome against the Minutemen set the Bonnies back, according to Sudbrook.
“We really hurt ourselves by losing two of our three to UMass,” Sudbrook said. “If we would have won that last game, so that we were 4-5 after that 0-3 start, then it’s not that bad … you’re doing okay.”
The rest of the Bonnies schedule features two home series (Dayton and La Salle) and two road series (Rhode Island and Fordham).
“We still have series at home against Dayton who is usually pretty good but they’re struggling right now,” Sudbrook said. “There’s still some teams coming ahead where if Eddie (Gray) gets healthy and we start playing a little better, you have the potential to not only win the series, but maybe sweep it, and then you’re right back into things.”
