This post was written by Hatchet reporter Peter Hoegler.
Despite the inclement weather conditions, baseball extended its mini win-streak to four games with a 6-4 victory over University of Maryland Baltimore County on Tuesday.
It took a committee of pitchers to complete the homestand with a win after freshman starter Brady Renner was taken out of the game in the second inning due to control issues. The bullpen provided the consistency head coach Gregg Ritchie was looking for—not allowing another earned run for the rest of the outing.
“Midweek games can give you some momentum if you play consistent baseball,” Ritchie said. “This win was good for our development, especially for our pitchers like [Kevin] Hodgson, [Luke] Olsen and Renner, who has not played in awhile.”
Coming off of a three game sweep of St. Bonaventure over the weekend, the Colonials (14-8) kept their bats alive against UMBC. Sophomore first baseman Bobby Campbell went 3-4 and added an RBI while shortstop Kevin Mahala, who has been adding key power at the bottom of the lineup, stayed hot with a pair of hits and an RBI sac fly.
“Anytime you can get some production from the bottom it bodes well for efficient offense. Our goal is to run up the pitch count and get timely hits,” Ritchie said.
UMBC, which entered the contest on the heels of a six-game win streak, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second off of Renner. Two walks later, Ritchie had seen enough from his starter and handed the ball off to fellow first-year Kevin Hodgson, who picked up his first win of the season after 3.2 innings of relief.
In the fourth, the Colonials scored three runs with key hits coming from Mahala, freshman Matt Cosentino, and Campbell. With rain coming down in the sixth, UMBC put up three more to cut the GW lead to one, but an insurance run scored by freshman second baseman Robbie Metz in the bottom of the inning put the game away for good.
Junior Luke Olsen added 2.1 innings of scoreless relief and sophomore Eddie Muhl came up with his eighth save of the season, good for the most the Atlantic 10.
“Moving forward, we are just looking for consistent play with an energy level as if you are playing the top team in the nation,” Ritchie said.
GW looks to keep up its consistency against Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday in another non-conference game before traveling to Massachusetts on Friday to resume league play.
