This post was written by Hatchet senior staff writer Josh Solomon.
GW lost its fifth game of the season Tuesday afternoon, falling to James Madison 2-1.
The Colonials (3-5) held the lead through six innings but gave up the tying run in the seventh and the go-ahead run in the eighth.
The bullpen called as bugaboo once again for GW.
Out of the five losses on the season, the Colonials have fallen behind in the sixth inning or later in all but one of them. The bullpen has contributed to three of the losses.
GW is currently five arms short in the bullpen because of injuries and expects to play shorthanded all season long.
The bullpen has yielded 52 percent of its runs allowed on the season and 47 percent of its earned runs. The bullpen has pitched 31 percent of the team’s total innings.
Junior transfer Shane Sweeney, fresh off his GW debut last week, in which he threw five shutout innings, hurled another standout game. Sweeney tossed another five scoreless innings with five hits, one strikeout and one walk on 73 pitches (still keeping the pitch count low early in the season).
Senior relief arm Luke Olson allowed a leadoff triple in the seventh. A pitching change brought in senior Randy Dalrymple, who struck out the first batter he faced but then walked the next and allowed a bunt single to the following. Sophomore Tyler Swiggart came in to close the inning, but could not before allowing a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Swiggart would stay in for the eighth and give up the go-ahead run on an RBI double to left field. Freshman Justin Friedman would come in to record the last out of the eighth and pitch the ninth.
The Colonials were unable to muster another run, after scoring in the second on a sophomore Brandon Chapman double and an RBI single by junior Eli Kashi.
GW would strand 10 runners in the game, including two in the eighth and one in the sixth – their best opportunity. Two one-out singles placed runners on the corners but an inning-ending double play by Chapman halted the threat.
The Colonials will resume action Friday at 2 p.m., home for a three game series with Cal State Northridge. Last year GW travelled to California, dropping two of three in a closely-played series.
