Image ContributorSenior left-fielder Sean Baumann is hitting .345 with four home runs this season for the Hoyas.
The whirlwind of away games is finally over.Georgetown (10-19, 3-6 Big East) finished off its five-game road trip in a grueling fashion, being swept for the first time by a Big East opponent this year in a series against West Virginia (23-6, 8-1) this past weekend in Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia scored at least eight runs in all three games, outscoring the Hoyas 28-14 in the series.The first game of the series kicked off a doubleheader on Saturday, after inclement weather postponed it from Friday. Freshman starting pitcher Will Harris (2-4) took the mound, giving up four earned runs in five innings pitched. West Virginia’s sophomore starting pitcher Jarryd Summers struck out 12 Hoyas through the first eight innings, allowing only two earned runs, while the Mountaineers built up a 10-2 lead. But the Hoyas came alive in the ninth. After freshman Andy Lentz doubled to put runners on second and third, junior shortstop Tom Elliott smashed a single to drive home two runs. With two outs, sophomore catcher Erick Fernandez singled to score the third run of the inning, and then a wild pitch brought home sophomore Dan Godefroi for the fourth consecutive run, before sophomore third baseman Sean Lamont struck out to end the game, with the Hoyas losing 10-6.Game two saw Georgetown strike first by scoring two runs in the first inning after senior outfielder Sean Baumann and redshirt sophomore first baseman Dan Capeless had back-to-back RBI singles. Trailing 5-2 at the start of the fifth inning, Lentz singled home a run on his second hit of the game to cut the lead to two and Baumann knocked in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4. But three Mountaineer runs in the bottom half of the frame gave West Virginia a comfortable lead to close out the game 10-5. Elliott had a fantastic overall day, hitting 3-for-9 with four runs scored and two RBI, plus three stolen bases in the first game.The final game of the series came on Sunday, with another strong West Virginia pitching outing that struck out 13 Georgetown batters, for a total of 33 in the series. Down 8-0 in the ninth, Lamont cracked his 10th home run of the season, just two shy of his total for all of last year, a three-run shot that brought his RBI total to a team-leading 32.The good news is that Georgetown may have just finished its toughest challenge, even if University of Southern Florida (19-10, 7-2) is coming to town on Thursday for a three-game series. West Virginia went into the series with a 20-6 overall record – tops in the Big East – and a 5-1 conference record – also best in the Big East. Statistically, they have the best offense in the Big East and also held the advantage of playing at home.Even more good news: the Hoyas are just one game out of contention for the Big East tournament. The way the tournament is set up for baseball, the top eight teams in the conference are given berths while the bottom four are out of luck. Georgetown and Cincinnati share the 9th spot, while Rutgers and Villanova are 11th and 12th, respectively. And to add to the good fortune for the Blue and Gray, the Hoyas will play 11 of their final 22 games at home, where they are 3-2. Of all the Big East teams, only Rutgers has played fewer home games than Georgetown. On top of that, the first four Big East teams Georgetown will have played (Louisville, St. John’s, WVU and USF) have a combined record of 79-35 overall and 27-9 in the conference. Georgetown’s remaining Big East opponents (UConn, Pitt, Villanova, Rutgers, Seton Hall) are 70-68 overall and 16-29 in the conference.However, this year’s Big East conference is proving to be tricky for a lot of the front-runners. Over the weekend, Cincinnati toppled Louisville in the final game of its series, while both Pittsburgh and Rutgers forced extra innings against USF and St. John’s, respectively. So for now, the Hoyas should enjoy playing as the underdogs for at least one more series.South Florida will be a different type of team for the Hoyas, for one key factor – pitching. Second in the Big East with a team earned run average of 4.24 (.001 behind leader Seton Hall’s league best 4.23), what is most notable about the Bull’s pitching staff is that they’ve only walked 78 batters in 29 games, which is best in the Big East by a wide margin. They aren’t a power pitching team either, like Louisville and West Virginia, who can strike out a ton of hitters, but give up a lot of runs in the process. USF is balanced, able to give up some hits but keep runs off the boards. To back up their staff, the Bulls also flash one of the league’s top defensive units, having committed only 30 errors, tied for first in the league.On the opposite end of the stat sheet is Georgetown. While the Hoyas’ offense continues to be a force, its pitching staff remains erratic. Last weekend against the Red Storm, two great starts by senior Jimmy Saris (2-3) and junior Tim Adleman (2-4) propelled the Hoyas to victories in both games. Two dismal starts by the two pitchers against the Mountaineers this weekend put the Hoyas in holes of which they couldn’t climb out. Saris and Adleman combined to give up 15 earned runs in 11 innings over the weekend, marked by six West Virginia home runs. But to be fair, no other pitching staff has had to face the top two offenses in the Big East in consecutive weekends.Georgetown’s offense will have to try to put some more runs up in the early frames when they take on South Florida this Easter weekend, starting with the first game on Thursday at 1 p.m., at Shirley Povich Field in Maryland.”