A win meant the top spot, but a loss meant tumbling down into a logjam for fifth place, entering the final two weeks of the regular season.

With the stakes so high, the Colonials brought in sophomore Eddie Muhl – one of the nation’s top closers by saves. Muhl had thrown two easy close-out innings in a save the day before, but walked the first batter he faced on four straight pitches and then gave up a game-tying triple on a pitch right down Broadway that got the young, tired arm yanked.

The next pitcher retired his first batter, and GW head coach Gregg Ritchie was prepared to intentionally walk the next two batters to load the bases and bring up the bottom of the Rams’ lineup. He was playing the percentages.

Except the Colonials wouldn’t reach that mark. Sophomore Brandon Ritchie threw GW’s second wild pitch while trying to intentionally walk a batter in the game, and allowed the game winning run to score.

Rhode Island won the game 7-6 and the series 2-1 to move into first place in the A-10, and GW was left with the short stick, a few pitches away from not having to settle for fifth place.

“You have the moment in time where you feel it immediately. It’s like when the ball goes to the backstop you go ‘Oh my god.’ You feel it right then,” Ritchie said.

The Colonials then headed back to the team bus to travel the 387 miles down I-95 back to campus for class the next day.

“I’m not happy we lost. The players aren’t happy. They’re pretty pissed,” Ritchie said. “They’re mad at themselves, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their face, but at the same time we went and got dinner on the way home and didn’t let it get in the way of everyone clapping and singing happy birthday to Andrew Selby.”

But although Selby was another year older, the youth of the Colonials had shown up. This time, it came at the expense of a veteran Rhode Island team.

The Colonials have won 28 games this season – the most since 2005, when they lost in the A-10 Championship game. They still have six games to play, three in conference, and are two games out of first in the loss column. But they’ve now dropped three series in a row. The wheels haven’t come off, but the inexperience of a team full of freshmen and sophomores is leading to a number of stingingly close losses.

But Ritchie, who’s been there before with the 2012 Pittsburgh Pirates, who fell from playoff contention in the final month of the MLB season, says he’s still seeing the big picture. The top seven teams in the A-10 make the playoffs.

“I’ve been around a team that was right there,” Ritchie said. “You sit there and you go ‘Oh man,’ and you look back at it and you go ‘Wow, that was a pretty damn good season.’ Your heart doesn’t want to say that, because you feel like you missed the mark. That’s the competitor in you. That’s the real winning mentality. Because you have that way, the next year or the next year when it actually does happen is because of the way you handled it a year or two ago. That’s the growth.”

Midway through the season, the growing pains weren’t showing as much. Now, the team has struggled to close out the campaign, though losses have come by the slimmest of margins. In the past three series, GW has been outscored by an average of 1.5 runs per game and most losses have come down to one bad inning. Two of them have fallen on the shoulders of Muhl, the normally lights-out closer.

Normally six runs would be enough for the Colonials pitching staff, but freshman Robbie Metz had a rough start by his standards. He left the game in the fifth, after giving up a three run home run to cap a start that finished with a line of 4.2 innings, four runs on nine hits, four strikeouts and one walk. He threw 91 pitches. Muhl would be tagged with two runs and the tough loss.

“I think our staff and the players have understood that if you let it go much further than that, whether it’s a win or a loss, it’s not going to be beneficial to you down the road,” Ritchie said. “We talked about wiping it clean, we talked about rinsing it off, flushing it down the toilet after you have allowed yourself to process it. I think that’s why we’re sitting at 28-16 and not 16-28.”

Weekend Recap

Friday, 3-5 Rhode Island

Down two runs entering the eighth inning, GW managed to put their first two hitters on board in both of the final two frames, but to no avail.

Junior Bobby LeWarne got stuck with the loss after giving up five runs in 6.1 innings with 11 hits and five strikeouts. He dropped to 7-4 on the season after falling victim to a few well-placed hits in the seventh and departed after throwing 110 pitches, 75 for strikes.

Sophomore Joey Bartosic missed the game, still recovering from a virus going around among the team.

Saturday, 4-3 GW

The big bop came courtesy of sophomore Colin Gibbons-Fly. GW entered the sixth down three runs after a short start of 2.1 innings from sophomore Jacob Williams who gave up all three Rams runs. Gibbons-Fly came to the plate with an opportunity to do what Ritchie says he is “tremendous at,” hitting breaking balls.

With one run already across, Gibbons-Fly stroked an 0-1 breaking ball for a three run home run which would decide the game.

“That matchup just presented itself, through the homework and the numbers, that he would have a good opportunity to do some damage,” Ritchie said about his designated hitter for the day. “Now a home run is extra special damage, but you know, it did not surprise me.”

Redshirt senior Craig LeJeune and Muhl would both throw two innings to close out the game. Muhl threw only 13 pitches in his two innings.