After losing to Towson University Thursday, the GW baseball team traveled to Philadelphia this weekend for a three-game series against the Temple Owls.
The Colonials (19-16) split an doubleheader with the Owls (13-16-1) Saturday, but Sunday’s game was canceled because of rain and rescheduled for Monday at 2:30 p.m.
“In the first game, we just missed our chances,” second baseman Mike Roberts said. “We turned it up a little bit in the second game. We executed and got the runs in when we needed it.”
GW 8, Temple 2
PHILADELPHIA – The Colonials took the lead in the fourth inning and never looked back in the second game of the doubleheader with Temple.
Matt Krimmel stroked a double with one out in the fourth inning. He scored on Eric Mitchell’s double to leftfield to give GW a 2-1 lead. The Colonials scored four runs in the fifth inning and secured the win in the sixth with two more runs.
After claiming the lead in the fourth, GW came out stronger at the plate in the fifth inning. Ryan Dacey started off the inning with a double and then scored on Joe Beichert’s single. After Belicic singled to right, Krimmel whacked a triple to centerfield, scoring Beichert and Belicic, and then scored on a throwing error by the catcher. At the end of the inning, GW boasted a 6-1 lead.
Bryan Beggs (4-0) earned the win for GW, pitching six complete innings with seven strikeouts.
Temple 2, GW 0
PHILADELPHIA – The Temple-GW series opened with a pitching duel, as GW’s Adam Belicic lost a battle to Temple’s Peter Moore, who shut out the Colonials.
Both Belicic and Moore pitched complete games and allowed only four hits. Belicic (5-4) struck out seven, and Moore (3-1) struck out five.
The only exception to the impeccable pitching happened in the bottom of the third. Belicic put the first batter, Jim Grafstrom, on base with a walk, but he was caught stealing by catcher Eric Mitchell. But Belicic proceeded to walk the next two batters, and Moore hit into a fielder’s choice to advance the runners. With two men in scoring position, Andrew Kush cleared the bases with a two-out single to centerfield, giving Temple the runs it needed to win.
The Colonials threatened to score in the third and fourth innings but couldn’t produce hits when they needed them. In the top of the third, Krimmel hit a ball sharply back at the pitcher. Moore couldn’t field the ball and then made bad throw to first, allowing Krimmel to advance to second. Then Mitchell earned a walk and Tony Brown struck out.
With two runners on, one out and the top of the order coming to bat, things looked hopeful for GW. But Roberts hit a bouncer to shortstop that resulted in a double play to end the inning. Temple thwarted another possible comeback in the fourth when GW grounded into a double play with runners on first and second.
Towson 6, GW 5
Towson outlasted GW in a four-hour 13-inning game Thursday in Towson, Md., handing the Colonials their second extra-inning loss of the week.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 13th, Towson’s Jason Rummel grounded to shortstop Ryan Dacey. He completed the first half of a double play, but Rummel beat the throw at first, and Tim Pritchard came across for the winning run.
GW had to battle back from deficits twice to force extra innings. With GW trailing 2-1 in the seventh inning, Dan Rouhier knocked in a pair of runs with a single to give the Colonials a 3-2 lead.
Towson came back with three runs in the eighth to take the lead back at 5-3, but GW scored two more runs in the top of the ninth to tie the score at five. Rouhier and Dacey led off the inning with singles. Rouhier stole third base and pinchhitter Chris Materese knocked him in with a sacrifice fly. Adam Belicic then doubled to right to score Dacey from first base.
