PHILADELPHIA – For the second time in three years, the Saint Joseph’s Hawks are Liberty Bell Classic champions as the SJU baseball team secured a 10-3 win over La Salle at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night. Collin Forgey set a pair of records in the game, going 6-for-6 with six singles, while Stefan Kancylarz hit his first home run of the season in the contest as well.
Every Hawk in the starting lineup reached based in the game as Saint Joseph’s won its second title in four championship game appearances. The Hawks’ last appearance in the title game was 2012, when SJU topped Penn, 6-3, for its first-ever Liberty Bell Classic title.
Forgey made his presence felt throughout the tournament, scoring the go-ahead run in the quarterfinal win at Villanova on April 1 before hitting a two-run home run in the top of the 13th inning of the semifinal victory at Penn a week later. On Tuesday night, Forgey set school records for both hits and singles in a game, turning in the first 6-for-6 performance in SJU baseball history.
Saint Joseph’s (22-10) got off to a fast start in the bottom of the first inning, pushing five runs across to take a 5-0 lead. Chris Hueth led off with a single and Brian O'Keefe followed with a walk. After a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, Forgey singled to left to score Hueth and give the Hawks an early lead. Tommy Cunningham followed with a single of his own to double the lead.
Two batters later, Kancylarz went deep over the wall in right to extend the advantage to 5-0. Minutes later, the game was delayed for an hour and six minutes due to thunderstorms that moved quickly through the area.
When the game resumed, the Hawks threatened in the bottom of the fourth, putting runners on second and third with two out, but Explorer reliever Freddy Andujar escaped the jam with a strikeout.
La Salle (11-25) got on the board in the top half of the fifth as Derek Prucnal doubled to left center, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a throwing error.
SJU answered in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases with two outs for Forgey, who notched his fourth single of the game to score Hueth and Spencer Judge.
Consecutive two-out doubles by Josh Savakinus and Joey Ravert in the top half of the sixth cut the SJU lead to 7-3.
The Hawks put the affair out of reach in the bottom of the eighth, loading the bases for O’Keefe, whose grounder to short led to a bad throw by La Salle’s Kevin Baron that allowed Kevin Kratochwill and Ryan Pater to score. Forgey followed with his sixth hit of the game to score Taylor Boyd with the game’s final run.
Braedon Lawson earned the win, allowing an unearned run on a hit and two walks in three and a third innings of relief, to improve to 2-2 on the year. Alex Faust started and took the loss for La Salle, allowing five runs on four hits and a walk in just one-third of an inning.
Forgey finished the game with four runs batted in to go with his six hits, while Kancylarz notched three RBI with his big fly. Hueth had a two-hit game for SJU, scoring a pair of runs, while Cody Silverman was 2-for-3 off the bench.
The Hawks will now hit the road for four games, heading to Villanova on Wednesday for the last of four non-conference matchups with the Wildcats before taking on La Salle once again in a three-game Atlantic 10 series at Hank DeVincent Field.