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Bonnies Lose Tourney Opener

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Sixth-seeded Davidson took advantage of nine walks by the St. Bonaventure pitching staff to build a lead and hold on for a 5-2 victory in the opening game of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship at the Billiken Sports Center.

St. Bonaventure (26-21) falls into the loser’s bracket and was awaiting the result of the Rhode Island vs. George Mason to see when it would play next.

Davidson (28-23) threatened from the get-go by drawing back-to-back walks. A sacrifice attempt led to a force play at third, but a single dumped into center by Brian Fortier brought home a run. Starter Aaron Phillips evaded further trouble with two consecutive strikeouts to leave the bases loaded with a 1-0 tally.

Bona immediately responded in the home half of the first. Ryan MacCarrick came through with his sixth home run of the year, drilling a no-doubt shot to left for the 1-1 tie.

Davidson broke the deadlock in the second, however, following a two-out run-scoring single by Alec Acosta.

The Wildcats added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to stretch their lead to four before the Bonnies answered with a run in the seventh. MacCarrick again delivered, this time blasting a double to the fence in left-center to plate Taishi Terashima from first for a 5-2 game.

St. Bonaventure kept the game close by forcing Davidson to leave the bases loaded in separate four innings as the Wildcats stranded 14 base runners for the day.

Unfortunately, the Bonnies left runners in scoring position in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings as rally efforts went for naught.

Phillips struck out nine on the day over 6.1 innings, moving into second place in Bonnies single season history with 90 strikeouts this year. Danny Urban worked 2.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen with a strikeout.

MacCarrick paced the offense with three hits, driving in the team’s two runs.

Davidson starter Durin O’Linger had a bend-but-don’t-break kind of day, allowing two runs on nine hits while walking three. He threw 140 pitches in 8.1 innings of work to get the win.

The Wildcats move into the winner’s bracket and will play Rhode Island/George Mason today.

A win by Rhode Island Wednesday afternoon would move the Bonnies into today’s elimination game at 8:30 p.m. CST/9:30 p.m. EST while a George Mason win would force the Bonnies into Wednesday night’s elimination game in the same time slot.

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