A night at the ballpark. The six and seven seeds tangoed under the white lights and the orange glow of the scoreboard. The first pitches were greeted with the pop of radar guns handled by scouts sitting behind home plate.
A handful of pitches into the bottom of the first inning, GW had the bases loaded. The first three men had walked, in an nontraditional lineup with three leadoff-type batters topping the order. Then, freshman Brandon Chapman got to swing the bat.
With a soft wind pushing out, he stroked a ball to the right center gap, wiping the bases empty with a standup double. The bench erupted, head coach Gregg Ritchie included with perhaps his most emphatic look of the season, posing and flexing like Hulk Hogan.
“That’s about as excited as I’ve got in a long, long time,” Ritchie said. “It was just really rewarding to have that lineup anticipate a game plan and have it work out.”
The lineup changes paid dividends immediately in the hours after the Colonials’ morning loss to Richmond.
GW would go onto win 11-5 at The Tuck Wednesday night, surviving the first day of Atlantic 10 Tournament play. The Colonials will go onto play the loser of the Thursday morning game between No. 2 Rhode Island and No. 3 Richmond, at 5 p.m.
The win wouldn’t come without situational miscues. The Colonials bailed themselves out with big hits – an anomaly for the team lately in conference play. They ran themselves out of a few innings, never putting up more than three in a frame, but found a way to scratch a run in nearly every frame.
The lineup change proved vital to sparking the offense. As usual, sophomore Joey Bartosic led off, but was followed by sophomore Eli Kashi and then freshman Robbie Metz. It was the seventh and sixth time they batted in those respective spots.
Down in the lineup, sophomore Bobby Campbell would bat eighth, after batting no lower than fifth on the season, and drive in a run on a suicide squeeze. Sophomore Kevin Mahala rounded out the lineup and came up with a big two out, two run RBI double in the third to ultimately break open the game, to a seven run lead.
“We wanted to get on them early, especially after Bobby threw so well last game and we weren’t able to push some runs across,” Mahala said. “Getting on them early was definitely a good feeling.”
Following the morning’s loss where base running mistakes were left glaring in the absence of any clutch hits, Ritchie talked about moving the lineup. He felt confident in it, but a different match up in a desperation game called for a tweak or two.
A similar lineup was the pitching matchup. Junior Jacob Williams squared off against Fordham freshman Ben Greenberg. The two faced each other in the final game between the two ball clubs earlier this season, also in Arlington. GW won that game 2-1, with Williams going seven innings, giving up one run on six hits.
Williams gave up three runs Wednesday night in the spot start, but lasted into the ninth. Meanwhile Greenberg exited in the third inning without recording an out, credited with five runs to his name.
“There’s always a little bit of nerves, especially a game like tonight with the season on the line,” Williams said. “You don’t want to be the guy who has the senior’s season to end.”
Williams threw 111 pitches, working the outside of the pitch heavily with his fastball and mixing in his change up.
In the ninth, with Fordham down to its final outs of the season, a senior who has battled significant injuries throughout his collegiate career came to the plate to pitch hit. Ryan Carroll hit his first career home run in his final at bat and was joined by his teammates at the dish to celebrate.
Pitches later, Williams reached for a soft comebacker with his glove hand and over reached, hurting his non-pitching shoulder and forcing him to leave his potential complete game. Freshman Randy Dalrymple came in and gave up one run but closed out the game.
GW will head into Thursday with a chance to keep their preseason hopes of a conference championship and a road to the College World Series alive.
“Every step you take is a sign of maturity. It still may be little baby steps, but you know the consistency really tells you whether you’ve actually matured,” Ritchie said. “We still haven’t been consistent enough. We’ve been resilient.”
