Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Battle-tested Hoyas Head to Morgantown

The weekends just seem to be getting tougher for the Georgetown baseball team. For the third week in a row, the Hoyas are facing another Big East matchup with a conference superpower. This weekend, it’s the West Virginia Mountaineers, the new leaders of the Big East with a 5-1 record, after the Hoyas gave top contenders Louisville and St. John’s trouble in consecutive weeks.

West Virginia has emerged as the statistical beast of the Big East, leading the league with a team batting average of .368. Additionally, they lead the league in runs scored (257, an average of about 10 runs per game), hits and doubles. West Virginia also boasts the individual leaders in batting average and ERA – sophomore third baseman Dan DiBartolomeo is hitting .467 and junior starter Chris Enourato has posted a 1.33 ERA with a 5-0 record.

Intimidating as these numbers are, West Virginia is just a more offensive version of St. John’s. Despite having three starting pitchers with ERAs under 3.00 and a combined 11-2 record, West Virginia’s pitching staff is in the middle of the pack when it comes to the Big East, as it has given up a high number of hits and walks. This is both good and bad for Georgetown – the Blue and Gray have no trouble putting men on bases and are very aggressive on the base paths, yet, where the Hoyas have trouble is bringing those runners across the plate. On average, Georgetown leaves more than eight men on base per game.

Take, for instance, Wednesday’s loss to George Mason in Fairfax, Va., when the Hoyas left eight runners on the base paths while striking out a season high 17 times, including a golden sombrero for junior shortstop Tom Elliott and hat tricks for redshirt sophomore first baseman Dan Capeless and senior left fielder Sean Baumann. A lot of the credit should go tom a fantastic performance by Patriot freshman starting pitcher Ryan Pfaeffle, who struck out 10 Hoyas in five and one-third innings in just his second collegiate start.

Sophomore outfielder Dan Godefroi punched home the only run for the Hoyas on a solo shot, his third of the year. Sophomore starting pitcher Tommy Isaacs had a decent start for the Hoyas, going six innings and giving up four runs, striking out one.

It continues to be a tough travel week for the Hoyas. After playing at Citi Field in New York in a de facto home game against the Red Storm, they’ll play in West Virginia against the Mountaineers for a three-game series that will bring an end to a five-game road schedule and a grueling two months of travel for the Hoyas. Georgetown will have played just four of their first 29 games at home before playing 11 of their last 22 at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md.

A bright spot for the Blue and Gray came on Tuesday when Baumann was named Big East Player of the Week. Baumann hit 11-for-19 with a double, a triple, three home runs, six runs scored and four RBIs for the Hoyas in a week in which they won two games against conference rival St. John’s. Against the Johnnies, the senior batted .636 and in the Hoyas 10-5 win last Saturday, he hit two home runs. Baumann even had a stretch where he reached base safely in eight consecutive plate appearances. He is the first Hoya to be named Big East Player of the Week since April 30, 2007, nearly two years ago.

The Blue and Gray are going to need Baumann and the rest of the lineup to score runs to offset the powerful West Virginia offense. But the Hoyas are used to playing conference alpha dogs away from home and already have a 3-3 record in the Big East.

“Our team seems to play to the level of competition, which may have hurt us earlier this year but could be a real bonus for us in conference with the high level of competition,” senior co-captain and center fielder Tommy Lee said earlier in the year. “Keep in mind not one player on Georgetown walks onto the field ready to hand over wins.”

West Virginia won’t either, but Georgetown has already proved it’s capable of playing with the big boys of the Big East.

The first game against the Mountaineers starts today at 5 p.m. in Morgantown, West Va.

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