Following back-to-back losses starting the week, Georgetown baseball won two straight games on the back of its pitching to win its series with George Mason University.
Inclement weather forced Georgetown (16-12) to travel down to Fairfax to play a three-game series at George Mason (10-17, 2-1 Atlantic 10), instead of one matchup at Shirley Povich Field and two at GMU as originally slated.
In game one, the Hoyas suffered a late-game collapse, giving up all 11 runs scored by the Patriots in the final three innings on five errors to lose 11-1. Georgetown Head Coach Peter Wilk attributed the Hoyas’ loss to his team’s poor defense.
“We didn’t play good defense that inning, bottom line,” Wilk said.
This defeat comes after a loss to Brown (8-10,2-2 Ivy League) a week before, in which
Georgetown surrendered four runs in the ninth inning off an error, wild pitch and passed ball to blow the lead.
Offensively, the team failed to string together enough hits to generate run support, managing five hits. Junior first baseman Alex Bernauer had two of those hits and drove in Georgetown’s sole run. The Hoyas are now 0-6 in games in which they score fewer than three runs.
“We were just slow, we were working with one run. Simon was lights out,but we just didn’t do enough as an offense,” junior shortstop Jake Bernstein said. “I don’t know if it’s us trying to do too much or just not ourselves-not relaxed, not getting good pitches to hit and not trusting the guy behind us.”
In game two, sophomore starting pitcher Jack Cushing went six and one-third innings, surrendering three runs and striking out six on the way to a 7-3 Georgetown victory.
At the plate, senior center fielder Beau Hall came up a triple short of a cycle to go along with three RBIs, part of a twelve-hit, three homerun offensive outburst for the Hoyas. Bernstein had two hits and an RBI as well and credited the team’s shift in mindset for its offensive success.
“We just refocused a little bit as an offense and kind of took it pitch by pitch. We weren’t ourselves in Game one. So in Game two we wanted to come out and make a difference, so we swung early and swung at good pitches,” Bernstein said.
Junior pitcher Jimmy Swad closed with two and one-third scoreless innings of relief on the mound.
Continuing the momentum, Georgetown took the rubber match of its series against George Mason 4-2 due to another strong outing from junior starting pitcher Kevin Superko, who has now won his last five outings. Superko pitched eight innings, carrying a shutout into the ninth before surrendering two runs. However, Georgetown’s run support was enough to preserve the victory.
“I go out there, and try and throw strikes again and have the defense pick me up,” Superko said.
Freshman pitcher Nick Morealle came in to get the save — his second of the year. Bernstein continued to be a steadying presence at the leadoff spot and initiating the offense, collecting three hits and scoring twice.
“As the leadoff guy you always just want to get on, try to get the rally going with no outs. I was fortunate, I didn’t get a great piece on that ball, but it ended up fair and I ended up on second,” Bernstein said.
A Tuesday afternoon home game against Cornell (10-8, 1-3 Ivy League) starts a seven-game home stand for Georgetown, which includes a three-game series against the New York Institute of Technology Bears (2-19-1) and the beginning of Big East play with a series against Creighton University (8-14).
First pitch on Tuesday is slated for 3 p.m. at Shirley Povich Field.
