O'FALLON, Mo. – The Spalding baseball team beat Fontbonne, 9-2, in their second round SLIAC Tournament game at CarShield Field in O'Fallon, Mo. With the win, the Eagles move to 28-13 on the season and move on the play Fontbonne tomorrow in the pod two final. The victory also marked a milestone for Head Coach Matt Downs, as the six-year head coach earned his 150
th career win.
Jack Parisi (8-3) earned the victory. The senior right-hander kept Fontbonne batters in check allowing just 2 runs, on 5 hits, while striking out 7 batters in 7.2 innings pitched. Reliever
Nate Thomas came on with two outs in the top of the eighth and the Griffins hitless to help SU secure the win.
Mitchell Langley led Spalding hitters going 3-for-4 with 2 doubles, 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
Evan Trentman,
Eric Meyer and
Michael Speck each finished 2-for-4 on the day. Trentman drove in a pair of runs and scored twice and Speck had an RBI and a double.
After 2.5 scoreless innings, Spalding plated a pair of runs following a throwing error by the Fontbonne shortstop that allowed
Marcus Collins and
Mitchell Langley to score. SU added two more runs in the fourth on a Langley two-RBI double down the right field line. The Eagles made it 5-0 in the fifth when Speck punched a single through the right-side scoring Meyer from third. Spalding brought two more across the plate to push the lead to seven runs. Trentman singled through the left-side scoring
Jace Pinkston and Trentman scored on a double steal with Meyer. The Griffins plated a pair of runs int the top of the eighth and looked to have the Eagles in a jam with the bases loaded, but reliever
Nate Thomas came on and a flyout to left ended the inning. Spalding answered with two runs in the home half of the inning to equalize the Griffins two runs. Trentman singles through the left side bringing in Langley from second and three batters later Trentman crossed the plate on a
JT Johnson groundout to run the final tally to 9-2.
The Eagles rematch #3 Fontbonne in the pod two final Saturday, May 15. This will mark the sitxh time in a week that the Griffins and Eagles faceoff. Spalding needs just one win to claim pod two and to advance to next weekend's three-game series against the winner of pod one, while the Griffins need to beat Spalding twice. First pitch is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. ET at CarShield Field in O'Fallon, Mo.
