Senior Justin Albright started the game throwing its first pitch. He closed the game, too – lining a single up the middle in the 10th inning, driving in the winning run for a 10-9 GW victory over Towson Wednesday afternoon.
This all came after GW (12-24, 5-7) blew its 7-0 second-inning lead against Towson (19-19, 9-6 CAA). The win could be a much-needed spark for the Colonials, who entered with a seven-game losing streak after being swept in a series by Richmond, dropping a contest to Georgetown, and then getting swept again by Charlotte.
“This was important not just because of our last game against [Towson], but because of our current slide. So we needed to get back to the winning side of things going into Fordham,” Albright said.
Albright went five-for-five in the game with three doubles, two runs batted in, and three runs scored. As the starting pitcher, the senior also went four and one-third innings on the mound, giving up six runs – three earned – and punching out four hitters.
Head coach Gregg Ritchie could sum up Albright’s performance in one word.
“Scrappy,” he said.
“He’s a dirt dog,” Ritchie added. “[A poor performance is] never going to be because he’s not mentally ready. It’s never going to be because he doesn’t want enough. If he doesn’t have a good game, it’s because he didn’t have a good game, not because of any other reason.”
The Colonials came out hot, with eight runs in the first three frames of the game: three in the first, four in the second and one in the third. It was the second inning, though, that saw the Colonials’ offense running on full cylinders.
The lineup card’s ninth hitter, sophomore Xavier Parkmond – who earned his first start of the season in centerfield – led off the inning with a triple that blasted over the Tiger centerfielder’s head in deep right center.
A hit-by-pitch for Albright –who then stole second – and a wild pitch scored Parkmond from third and advanced Albright over. GW then executed back-to-back safety squeezes with their three and four hitters to keep the offense going.
“We really executed offensively in terms of when we had guys on base,” Ritchie said.
With two outs in the second, junior Owen Beightol lined a ball down the right-field line that just stayed fair and made it over the fence for a solo home run.
Freshman Danny O’Donnell came in to relieve Albright in the fifth inning, despite having just four plate appearances on the season. He would not only throw three and two thirds of one-run, one-hit baseball, but also drive in a run of his own for the Colonials.
O’Donnell went all the way into the ninth, but a Towson leadoff double cued Ritchie to bring in his closer, junior Craig LeJeune. LeJeune quickly loaded the bases with nobody out, allowing a double off the wall to drive in two, followed by a game-tying sacrifice fly.
Trying to regain the momentum in the tenth inning, senior Matthew Murakami singled through the pitcher’s legs. Senior Ryan Hickey then lined a single to right field, advancing Murakami all the way to third.
“[Hickey] hit exactly how we described it before he went up there. That’s executing right there,” Ritchie said.
With the winning run now on third and the infield in, Albright took the first pitch in the at bat back up the middle to win the game – ending the team’s seven-game slide off the bat of the pitcher who took the mound for the game’s opening frame.
Wednesday’s game also served to honor legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson. Freshman pitcher Max Kaplow received the Jackie Robinson Award, which is given out annually to the GW player who best reflects the attributes of the legendary sports hero. He is the first freshman to win the award.
“For any baseball player he’s like a god, a legend, he might be the greatest legend of baseball. It’s so humbling and honoring to get it because there is no greater icon in baseball than Jackie Robinson,” Kaplow said.
The Colonials will travel to Fordham Friday to a three-game series in Bronx, N.Y.
