Once again, the baseball team is showing signs of a late-season turnaround.
After winning only two of their first nine Atlantic 10 games, the Colonials (11-22, 4-8 A-10) doubled their number of conference victories with a series win at La Salle this weekend. Last year, the team won nine of its final 10 games and marched confidently to the conference final four.
That comeback earned head coach Gregg Ritchie a conference coach of the year nod. He said Sunday that GW’s young roster would need to keep up the solid pitching and timely hitting it displayed against the Explorers.
“[If you] capture the idea that you can play this way, then all of a sudden, that last week, you find yourself playing for something,” Ritchie said. “That’s the goal.”
GW won the first two games of the series – the first after a late six-run burst and the second in a traditional pitchers’ duel in which sophomore Jacob Williams allowed just two hits through eight innings.
The Colonials scored six unanswered runs Friday night after the fifth inning to overcome an early five-run deficit.
After picking up one run in the sixth, GW rallied for five in the seventh to take the lead for good. Two big doubles, including one down the left-field line from junior Ryan Xepoleas, were crucial. Xepoleas’ double accounted for two of his four RBIs on the day.
Senior pitcher Aaron Weisberg stayed in the game until the seventh inning, making adjustments with his fastball location and the use of his slider to pick up the win, despite giving up six runs on six hits.
GW rode that momentum into Saturday with a standout performance from Williams. The righty picked up his team-high third win, going eight innings, while allowing only one run on two hits.
The superb performance on the mound was needed as the Colonials could not produce any run support until the fifth inning – a two-run single by freshman Gabe Scott.
In the third game, though, GW could not string together enough hits in one inning to pull out a win, despite out-hitting the Explorers 8-7. Three costly errors and stranded base runners shut the door on a series sweep.
The team now has to learn to “stop the bleeding,” Ritchie said.
GW left a total of nine runners on base, only scoring one run in the eighth against redshirt senior Shawn O’Neil – a lefty with professional potential that Ritchie described as the Explorers’ best pitcher.
Despite the loss in the final game, Ritchie said this is the most momentum they have had all season.
GW faces UMBC on the road Tuesday before hosting Massachusetts this weekend for a chance to keep their postseason hopes alive.
