After losses in two midweek non-conference games, Georgetown’s baseball team still found itself gasping for breath above the .500 line.
Tuesday’s matchup against George Mason turned into a battle of the bats as the Patriots outslugged the Hoyas, 15-10. The game featured 35 total hits – 20 for George Mason and 15 for Georgetown.
The teams took a while to warm up as the Patriots (24-13, 8-7 CAA) led just 2-1 after three innings.
But the Hoyas (21-23, 5-11 Big East) struck in the bottom of the fourth inning with three runs. Senior right fielder Bill Quinn got things started as he reached base on junior shortstop Mike Genovese’s second of three errors on the day. After junior left fielder Drew Dargen’s base hit, senior first baseman Jim Supple singled to score Quinn.
Sophomore third baseman Joseph Graziano was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for senior second baseman Parker Brooks, who doubled to right-center field to bring home Dargen and Supple. To go with those two RBIs, Brooks went 3-for-5 with three runs against the Patriots.
George Mason, however, took Georgetown’s three runs and doubled them with six in the fourth inning – four of which came from senior left fielder Adam Innerst’s grand slam.
Although the Hoyas threatened, the Patriots maintained control of the game after the slam. Georgetown scored two in the bottom of the sixth to make it 8-6, only to have George Mason answer back with two in the top of the seventh. The Patriots then had five more runs over the last two frames. The Hoyas put up three runs in the ninth, but they just weren’t enough to snatch the lead.
“They’re a very, very strong offensive team,” Georgetown Head Coach Pete Wilk said. “We knew we were going to have to put up some runs. Unfortunately, they put up more than we did.”
Senior right-hander Josh Morrison (4-2), George Mason’s starter, struck out nine in his winning 6.2-inning effort but gave up 11 hits. Meanwhile, Georgetown’s Tyler Abbott (0-1), a senior lefty, gave up 12 hits and nine earned runs in 5.1 innings while tallying five strikeouts.
Wednesday was no kinder to Georgetown as it fell 8-3 to Navy (12-28-1, 6-10 Patriot).
“We didn’t pitch, we didn’t field, we didn’t hit,” Wilk said. “It was a very disappointing loss to a team we should handle. We didn’t play well in any aspect of the game.”
The Midshipmen got an early lead with five runs in the second and never looked back. As they exhausted the batting order, junior left fielder Jared Munde and junior catcher Jonathan-Matthew Johnston stole bases while the Hoyas made a series of mistakes: a passed ball, a wild pitch and an error on Johnson, the shortstop.
Georgetown kept putting men on base, producing nine hits to Navy’s 10, but the Hoyas were only able to get three across the plate.
Two homers provided the runs for Georgetown – one a solo shot from junior first baseman Ryan Craft in the second inning and the other a two-run dinger from senior catcher Andrew Cleary in the sixth. But no matter how great the blasts, the home runs did not give the Hoyas a win.
“I’m still licking my wounds,” Wilk said. “That’s a win we needed and one I thought we would get.”
Sophomore lefty Daniel Kovalcik (1-2) took the win after three innings in which he struck out three, surrendered one earned run and gave up three hits. Hoya senior left-hander Travis Danysh (3-2), meanwhile, gave up seven hits and four hits with two strikeouts.
Georgetown goes back on the road this weekend with a three-game series at Connecticut (24-17, 6-8 Big East). To get out of the conference cellar, the Hoyas will need to win the series.
