AMHERST, Mass. – Saint Louis grabbed a 3-0 lead in its Atlantic 10 Championship second-round game against Saint Joseph's, but the top-seeded Hawks rallied for a 4-3 victory Thursday morning at Sortino Field.
The Billikens (27-22), seeded fifth in the six-team tournament, will face No. 4 George Washington (26-22) in an elimination game Thursday at 2 p.m. (CT). SLU defeated GW 4-2 in a first-round contest Wednesday.
Saint Louis took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on Lindsay Friedman's home run to center field. The homer was Friedman's school-record eighth of the season.
The Bills made it 3-0 in the third. Erin Harcar led off with a double to right center and moved to third on Olivia Roback's sacrifice. Jessica Buschjost reached on a fielder's choice, but Harcar was thrown out at third after straying too far from the bag.
After Buschjost stole second, Friedman was hit by a pitch. Laura Bohning followed with a line-drive double just inside the line past third base, and both runners scored.
Saint Joseph's scored a two-out run in the third and took the lead with three tallies in the fourth. Saint Louis threatened in the fifth and again in the seventh, but the Billikens could not score the equalizer.
In the fifth, Harcar led off with a single and advanced to second on Roback's sacrifice before being stranded. The Billikens loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh on a Harcar walk, an error and Buschjost's perfectly placed bunt single. But Saint Joseph's pitcher Liz Mendez, who relieved starter Taryn Ashway in the third, kept SLU off the board.
