The GW baseball team responded to a pair of losses at conference-rival Temple Friday by beating La Salle in both games of Sunday’s doubleheader at Barcroft Park. Mike Bassett hit three homeruns and drove in 10 runs Sunday, moving him into third place on the Colonials’ all-time homerun list. Dan Rouhier moved into second place on the all-time RBI list (167) after knocking in one run.
“We got our runners on base and we were able to capitalize,” Rouhier said of the Colonials sweep of La Salle. “We didn’t let the fact that we got beat pretty bad at Temple keep us down.”
GW 6, LaSalle 4
Sunday, April 22
Mike Bassett’s first-inning grand slam put the Colonials up 4-0 and provided support the Colonials would need when La Salle rallied for two runs in the third and sixth innings. GW added a run in the third and fifth innings to hold off the Explorers 6-4.
GW starter Chris Worth held La Salle to four runs on six hits. With the win, Worth improved his record to 5-4. Reliever Bryan Beggs pitched the last two innings and threw scoreless ball.
GW 15, LaSalle 6
Sunday, April 22
A Mike Bassett homerun in the bottom of the sixth inning broke open a 7-6 ballgame and led to eight more Colonials runs, propelling GW to a 15-6 victory over La Salle at Barcroft Park. Matt Krimmel went three-for-three and scored three times.
GW starter Greg Conden improved to 6-3 on the year with the win Sunday, going five innings and giving up five runs on eight hits. Conden remains undefeated in the A-10.
Temple 9, GW 6
Friday, April 20
The Colonials failed to recover after Temple exploded for seven two-out runs off GW starter Glen Skutnik in the bottom of the second inning in GW’s 9-6 game-two loss.
GW errors accounted for the Temple rally. Two miscues opened the floodgates as the Owls belted four home runs off Skutnik to take an 8-2 lead.
“We missed a fly ball and missed a pop up,” Walter said. “Then with two outs they hit homerun after homerun after homerun. It just snowballed and happened in a hurry.”
GW jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning off an RBI single by Chris Barry.
The Colonials added a run in both the third and fourth innings and made a near-comeback in the sixth inning with Dan Rouhier and Barry homeruns. But Temple shut down the Colonials in the seventh to secure the win.
“We had one really bad inning we just couldn’t overcome,” Rouhier said. “That really hurt us and it pretty much made the difference.”
Temple 3, GW 0
Friday, April 20
GW bats took the morning off in game one’s pitching duel between Jason Baker and Temple’s Greg Powell. Powell pitched a complete-game shutout and walked away with a 3-0 victory.
The Owls scored single runs off Baker in the first, third and fifth innings. While the Colonials showed signs of a rally in the first and seventh innings, they were unable to come through with a clutch hit.
“We just didn’t hit,” Walter said. “Their pitcher threw a great game against us and we just couldn’t get a two-out hit to drive in the runs.”
With two runners on in the seventh inning, Jake Wald popped up and Barry grounded out to the shortstop allowing Powell to maneuver out of his only rough inning. GW stranded two runners in the first inning after a diving catch by Temple leftfielder Keith Ramsey.
“We need to just keep playing consistently,” Rouhier said. “When things go bad we need to not panic and just relax.”