Bloomington, Ill., April 30, 2013 – The Washington University in St. Louis baseball team had a four-run lead slip away as Benedictine University scored five unanswered runs in the final four innings to get a 5-4 win over the Bears Tuesday evening at Jack Horenberger Field on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.
In the top of the third, Benedictine's leadoff batter singled and moved to third on a steal and a passed ball, but was gunned down at the plate by junior center fielder Kyle Billig on a fly out to center. In the bottom of the inning, senior Matthew Polites led off with a walk and freshman Max Golembo reached on an error by the shortstop. Sophomore Andrew Goldstick reached on a bunt single to load the bases, and Billig drove in the Bears' first run of the game with a single through the right side of the infield. With the bases still loaded, sophomore Chris Lowery drew a walk to make it 2-0, but a triple play called by the umpires on a soft liner to second base ended the inning for Washington U.
The Bears added to their lead with one run in the bottom of the fourth. Junior Andrew Dwoskin led off with a single to left-center field, and freshman Kyle Kozak hit a one-out single to right field. After both advanced on a passed ball, Polites laid down a sacrifice bunt along the third-base line that allowed Dwoskin to score and extended the lead to 3-0.
In the top of the fifth, the Eagles got their first two batters on with a walk and a single up the middle, but sophomore Dom Quaranta got a strikeout, a fielder's choice and a popout to get out of the inning and preserve the 3-0 lead for the Bears. Billig doubled to just in front of the right-field fence in the bottom of the inning and stole third base before scoring on a two-out single to right-center by sophomore Zack Kessinger. Dwoskin and sophomore Noah Doppelt followed with singles to load the bases, but a called strikeout ended the inning.
Benedictine got three-straight one-out singles in the top of the sixth, before scoring on a sacrifice fly to right field. With runners on first and third, Kessinger snagged a liner at first to get the Bears out of the inning. In the top of the seventh, Benedictine scored three runs on three-straight two-out hits to tie the game at 4-4. In the top of the eighth, the Eagles took the lead with one run on three hits. Benedictine got runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, but senior Max Gordon got his second strikeout of the inning to keep the score 5-4.
After throwing a two-hit shutout in seven innings Saturday, Quaranta threw six strong innings for the Bears in his seventh start of the season. He allowed just one earned run on six hits, while striking out two. Sophomore Max Zhang (1-2) took the loss, giving up four runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings of relief. Senior Ryan Furtick and Gordon combined to shutout the Eagles in the final 1 2/3 innings. Billig (2-for-4, double, run, RBI, two steals), Kessinger (2-for-5, RBI) and Dwoskin (3-for-5, run) were the top hitters for the Bears, who finished with 11 hits.
Washington U. (22-15) travels to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for its final road game of the regular-season Wednesday, May 1. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. (ET) in Terre Haute, Ind.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. recorded double-digit hits for the 21st time this season … Quaranta was named this week's University Athletic Association (UAA) Pitcher of the Week, and was also selected to the D3Baseball.com Team of the Week, while Kessinger received UAA Hitter of the Week honors … Kessinger extended his hitting streak to 15 games … The double by Billig in the bottom of the fifth was the 31st of his career, one shy of entering Washington University's career top-10 list … Billig is also now two hits shy of entering the top-10 career hits leaderboard (154).