Coming off of a four-game losing streak, the Georgetown University baseball team (13-27, 2-7 Big East) hosted the Butler University Bulldogs (14-26, 3-6 Big East) April 17-19, scoring 35 runs but ultimately winning only one of three games in a pivotal series.
Throughout the season, the Hoyas’ bullpen has been woefully inconsistent. Only three pitchers for the Hoyas have an ERA (Earned Run Average) under 5. Despite an offensive explosion against the Bulldogs, pitching left openings to lose two of the three games of the series.
Graduate right-handed pitcher JT Raab started for Georgetown Thursday afternoon, entering with an ERA of 3.59 across 47.2 innings.
After a quiet two innings, with the Hoyas unable to convert runners in scoring position, the Hoya offense woke up in the bottom of the third.
Graduate outfielder Kavi Caster led off with a bullet single up the middle, stealing during junior infielder Jeremy Sheffield’s at-bat. Senior catcher Owen Carapellotti laced one to right field, driving in Caster to put the Hoyas on the board. Graduate catcher Connor Price, playing third base, was hit by a pitch to load the bases for sophomore infielder Blake Schaaf who brought the second run home and prompted Butler to go to the bullpen early.
Sophomore infielder Tristan Head greeted Corbin Snyder with an RBI (Run Batted In) groundout to the right side. Snyder walked senior outfielder Jaden Sheffield to load the bases for sophomore outfielder Ashtin Gilio. Gilio singled in Price, the other runners moving from one station to the next. Junior outfielder Travis Ilitch walked, scoring Schaaf.
Caster came up for the second time in the inning. He dribbled a grounder to third, but Ian Choi rushed the fielding attempt, allowing Caster to reach. Carapellotti stepped in and roped a ball to the right-center gap, putting the Hoyas up 10. By the end of the third inning, Carapellotti was three for three from the plate.
To begin the fourth, Raab hung a breaking ball to Butler slugger Jack Moroknek, who deposited the pitch over the right field fence. He struck out the next three batters in a row, all swinging, to end the inning.
Raab continued his dominance into the fifth, striking out the side. His 11 strikeouts was the most by a Georgetown player this season. Raab began to fatigue in the sixth, allowing a leadoff single. Danny Barbero then got a hold of a fastball and hammered it out to left-center field, cutting the deficit to 7. Raab forced 2 groundouts and a flyout from the heart of Butler’s order to close the book on his day.
The Hoyas’ offense responded in the sixth, plating one. With one out, Head doubled and Jaden Sheffield singled to put runners on the corners. The Hoyas then executed a play where Sheffield got caught in a rundown, allowing Head to score from third to make it 11-3.
Junior right-hander Kai Leckszas relieved Raab, working a clean 1-2-3 top of the seventh, striking out one.
Ilitch walked to lead off the seventh, prompting Butler to pull Snyder and replace him with righty Aidan Hatcher. Ilitch stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Jeremy Sheffield walked to set the stage for Carapellotti, who got a fastball from Hatcher and did not miss it. The 3-run blast put the Hoyas up 11 and tied Carapellotti with Jake Hyde for the program home run record.
After a scoreless eighth, Leckszas sat down the Butler offense in order to win game one. The three scoreless innings lowered Leckszas’ season ERA to a sparkling 3.26 and earned him a save, putting him tenth all-time in the program’s history.
George Capen, Georgetown’s pitching coach, said pitching and defensive execution allowed the Hoyas to take advantage of their offensive success.
“I tell the pitchers all the time, we got to give the offense a chance,” Capen told The Hoya. “I’m happy that they were able to explode and we played clean defense, so it was good to have all three phases of the game clicking at the same time.”
Graduate right-handed pitcher Derek Yoo started game two, but did not last long. Yoo failed to record an out against the first five Butler batters. Senior Matthew Sapienza relieved him and got the last out of the first inning.
Despite a Caster double and Jeremy Sheffield walk to start the bottom of the first, the Georgetown threat was quieted by a line-out and a strike ’em out-throw ’em out double play.
After a scoreless top of the second, Head walked and stole second. Jaden Sheffield traded places with him on a double, plating the Hoyas’ first run. Gilio and Ilitch walked to load the bases for Caster. He was hit too, bringing in another run.
Alex Thomas, the new Butler pitcher, walked Jeremy Sheffield to bring the Hoyas within one. Erratic command was a theme of the inning, as Thomas hit Carapellotti with a pitch then walked Price giving the Hoyas a 5-4 lead. Butler brought in a new arm to face Schaaf, who hit a sacrifice fly doubling the Hoya lead.
Sapienza pitched around two singles to put up another zero on the scoreboard and continued to deal into the fourth. Georgetown responded in the bottom half on a Price sacrifice fly and 2 bases-loaded walks. The game entered the fifth with Georgetown up 9-5.
Graduate left-hander Axel Johnson relieved Sapienza, allowing back-to-back singles while a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third for Butler. A RBI groundout brought them within three, which Johnson induced to stop the bleeding.
Another Price sacrifice fly, this time with the bases loaded, added another. The next two innings went quietly — the only run on either side came as Jaden Sheffield scored from second on a catcher’s error.
In the eighth though, the Georgetown bullpen began to unravel. Senior left-handed pitcher Marshall Whitmer allowed a leadoff double and Butler began to pile it on. Back-to-back singles brought up Tommy Townsend, who cut the deficit to one with a 3-run shot. Graduate righty Jake Anderson relieved Whitmer.
An error allowed his first batter to reach, but Anderson struck out the next two to preserve a 1-run lead.
Butler’s momentum surged as they retired the Hoya offense quickly in the eighth. The top of the ninth began with a game-tying homer off the bat of Moroknek. A double and single gave Butler the lead. This prompted Georgetown to go to sophomore right-hander Jack Volo who forced a groundout, then the Hoyas opted to intentionally walk Townsend to set up force outs at every base. The plan backfired, as 2 singles drove in 3 runs to put Butler up 4.
Jeremy Sheffield singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth — the only hit for the Hoyas. Butler scored 9 runs between the eighth and ninth to force a rubber match in game three, by a score of 15-11.
Senior left-hander Andrew Williams took the mound in the rubber match. Williams opened the game with two strikeouts and quickly ceded to the Georgetown offense. At the bottom of the inning, Jeremy Sheffield walked with one out and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. Price walked to put runners on the corners for Schaaf.
Schaaf — named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list as one of the 100 best college shortstops — took a fastball the other way for a 3-run blast. Williams shut down Butler without allowing a baserunner in the second and third.
Caster led off with a double. With one out and one homer shy of breaking the program record, Carapellotti stepped into the box and hit a changeup, earning his 49th career home run for a 5-0 lead.
Butler did not roll over. Williams retired the leadoff batter before getting himself into trouble. A hit-by-pitch, single and walk loaded the bases for Barbero, resulting in a grand slam that cut the lead down to 1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Carapellotti hit another homer, this one down the right field line.
That lead too did not last long. Williams traded 2 strikeouts and walks. With two on and two out, Price fielded a dribbler to third cleanly, but the throw sailed past outstretched graduate infielder Noah Leib, allowing both men on base to score, knotting things up at 6-6.
The bottom of Georgetown’s order failed to muster any response in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs and one man on, Moroknek smoked an O’Connor offering towards second base which appeared to strike the runner. However, after review, the umpires declared both men safe, allowing Jack Bello the opportunity to double in the go-ahead run.
Caster greeted a new Butler arm at the top of the seventh with a double and Jeremy Sheffield walked. Carapellotti notched his third extra-base hit of the day, a double to left-center that plated Caster. A quick hook brought in a new Butler pitcher to face Price, who lifted a fastball to right-centerfield, clearing the fence and giving Georgetown a 10-7 lead. Schaaf and Jaden Sheffield singled but the Hoyas could not push another run across.
Leckszas, entering for the save, allowed a double and a single and a fielder’s choice scored one, Georgetown’s lead now just 2 runs. With the tying run at the plate, Leckszas got a strikeout on a changeup on the inner half yet could not escape the jam cleanly. A walk and double tied the game at 10-10.
Georgetown struck out twice in a too-fast bottom of the eighth. Junior left-handed pitcher Andrew Jergins started the ninth and left it just as quick, inducing a sky-high fly ball to center against the first batter. Ilitch settled under it, but missed the catch. Townsend made the Hoyas pay for the error, blasting a go-ahead 2-run homer to center on a hanging slider.
Junior Andrew Citron relieved Jergins after a walk, inducing a groundout to first that drove in a run. A hit-by-pitch sent Capen back out to the mound to bring in graduate righty Nadell Booker. Booker got a pop out before walking in another run. He escaped the inning with the Hoyas down 14-10.
At the bottom of the ninth, the Hoyas went down 1-2-3 to lose the series. Ten Butler runs across the last four innings lost Georgetown the game.
The 1-2 weekend drops the Hoyas’ conference record to 2-7, last in the Big East. The top four teams will qualify for the Big East Tournament at Prasco Park in Mason, OH in late May. Georgetown has 12 conference games left with lots of work to do to extend their three-year conference tournament streak.
After dropping a standalone game 13-1 to the University of Virginia Cavaliers, the Hoyas return to conference action against the Xavier University Bulldogs (24-19, 8-4 Big East), Fri. April 25.
