This post was written by Hatchet senior staff writer Josh Solomon.
By all accounts, the weekend was a success for GW.
The Colonials won their Atlantic 10 series opener. Their ace gave them nearly a complete game Friday. A weekday starter moved into the weekend role threw a one-hitter into the seventh inning. The bats put up enough runs to win and the bullpen finished games. Two wins in two days, by one run apiece.
But a 30-plus-minute seventh inning against La Salle Sunday reminded the Colonials the difficulty of finishing.
“We can’t read into everything,” head coach Gregg Ritchie said. “You just can’t. Baseball is a funny thing.”
Between three pitchers, three walks handed out, two RBI singles and one wild pitch, the Explorers tied the game in the inning and then took back the lead for good, and did so with two outs.
La Salle would go onto win 6–3, although GW (10–18) would take the series win in the opening weekend of conference play.
“When you’re trying to win a game three and sweep, the sweep is the toughest game to get to. It’s like winning a doubleheader,” Ritchie said. “You would like to have it happen, but you know the number one goal was to come out here get a series victory and we did. We have to move on.”
GW threw three starters, two in relief.
Sophomore Brady Renner got his second start and third appearance of the season, going 2.2 innings, allowing one hit and no runs. But Renner, still regaining his strength after a back shoulder strain, had a short outing.
The usual Sunday starter, senior Jacob Williams, came in relief but couldn’t last. He gave up the first run of the game off of a sacrifice fly in the fifth, but the game unravelled in the sixth inning after GW got the lead back with a two-run home run by junior Cody Bryant. Williams loaded the bases with no outs. Senior Luke Olson came in and induced two ground balls to allow just one run.
In the bottom of the sixth, sophomore Robbie Metz led off with a triple. He scored on a suicide squeeze. Once Metz scored, he headed to the bullpen to start warming up. He then warmed up from the infield in between the sixth and seventh. When the seventh inning started, he went back out to second.
“Once we got that squeeze done, and got the lead, everything was really in line,” Ritchie said. “It was set up exactly the way we were formulating it.”
When Olson gave up a leadoff single, Metz was called in to pitch.
Nothing worked for Metz, the third typical starter of the day pitching for GW. He knew coming into the weekend he would likely be used in this role, instead of a start.
Metz walked the first two batters he faced on full counts, to load the bases. He then picked up a couple outs, on a pop up and a sacrifice fly on a 1-2 pitch, to tie the game. He then gave up back-to-back RBI singles, forcing him out. One more run would score in the inning on a wild pitch.
“I knew I was going to pitch, I just didn’t do my job,” Metz said.
After Ritchie talked to the team, then to his starters, he had a conversation with Metz about how to process his experience once everyone had left the dugout.
“The game sped up on you a little bit, didn’t it?” Ritchie said he told Metz.
“There’s a little frustration there, because he wants to be better and it didn’t happen,” Ritchie said. “But that’s something you learn, you learn how to harness it. That was the bigger part of the conversation, cut yourself a break and understand that each step you take is a good move because you can take that down the road the next step and learn from that.”
At the plate the Colonials couldn’t slow it down either. They had their chances early in the game, getting the leadoff hitter on base in the first three innings but doing nothing with it. In the sixth, when Metz led off with a triple, they could only muster one run.
“We just didn’t stick with our approach of the last couple games,” sophomore catcher Brandon Chapman, who went 0-3, with one run scored Sunday, said. “Getting out of our approach of staying the other way, letting the ball get deep, and barreling balls up. We were kind of getting big.”
Chapman saw Metz rush his delivery. Chapman saw six different pitchers try and fail to get into a groove Sunday, but sees the weekend’s results as a whole as a step in the right direction.
“We just got a series win, big two-and-one in the conference – it’s a good start,” Chapman said.
Series Recap
Game 1: GW 4, La Salle 3
The Colonials won the series opener, showing they could do what they had struggled to do all season long in the non-conference – finish. Taking in the fresh start, GW rode senior Bobby LeWarne for 8.2 innings. La Salle scraped across one in the ninth, but junior Eddie Muhl closed it out. Read the full game recap here.
Game 2: GW 2, La Salle 1
An injured Kevin Mahala embraced the DH role Saturday. Battling a hip-flexor injury, the shortstop spent the rest of the weekend just doing work at the plate. He drove in the team’s lone two runs in the fifth on a two-out single through the right side.
Junior Shane Sweeney got the start instead of sophomore Robbie Metz, the usual Saturday starter. Electing to rest his two-way player, Ritchie started Sweeney and got a solid 6.2 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four on 85 pitches. A combination of freshman Justin Friedman and Muhl finished off the game. Muhl collected his seventh save of the season.
Up next: GW faces UMBC in Baltimore Tuesday at 6 p.m. after losing at home last week to the Retrievers, 10–8, in 11 innings. The Colonials continue conference play on the road at Davidson (16-12, 4-2), April 8-10. Ritchie said the starting rotation is yet to be determined.
