Hoyas Take Three of Seven, Look To Build on Wins

By Archives • March 16, 2001

Improvement.

One cannot ask for much more than that from a team coming off a 13-34 season that opened this year 0-7.

But the Hoyas are providing their coaches and fans with exactly that – steady progress towards becoming a consistently competitive baseball team.

While students vacated Georgetown campus for spring break, the Hoyas fought through a tough six game stretch in five days, a period in which they went 3-3. They continued to improve their play on Tuesday with a narrow 2-1 loss to Cleveland State in a 16 inning thriller.

“That’s one of the best baseball games I’ve ever been a part of,” Wilk said. “It was an outstanding baseball game.”

Freshman pitcher Kevin Field pitched 7.1 strong innings in only his second college start, allowing only one run on a solo homer in the third. Georgetown tied the game in the fifth on a RBI double by sophomore outfielder Tony Lee and kept the score 1-1 through the first six extra frames with outstanding pitching from its relievers. Junior Tony Pina entered in the eighth and threw 3.2 scoreless innings. Senior Jim Vankoski relieved Pina and eventually took the difficult loss.

In contrast to previous games in which the Hoyas’ pitching and defense let them down, what plagued the Hoyas against Cleveland State was their inability to get clutch hits. They had five chances in extra innings to win the game with a runner in scoring position and had the tying run on third base with no outs in the bottom of the 16th, but failed to push any of them home.

Georgetown was a combined 7-50 at the plate for the game.

“We were swinging at pitchers’ pitches, not at hitters’ pitches,” Wilk said. “Our pitch selection was awful. That’s a young team’s mistake.

“We didn’t lose that game in the 16th. We lost it mentally at the plate. We were not disciplined enough. We just didn’t step up when we had to.”

Although they did not “step up” on Tuesday, the Hoyas did so last Wednesday when they earned their first victory of the season at Maryland. Trailing 7-0 going into the top of the ninth inning, Georgetown took advantage of a slew of Maryland mistakes and scored eight runs to win 8-7. In the bottom of the ninth, senior left-hander Matt Arizin shut the Terrapins down in order to secure the stunning victory.

“That’s big time baseball,” Wilk said of the comeback. “That was a huge win not only for this year, but also for the program.”

The Terrapins self-destructed in the final inning, walking two, hitting two batters, throwing two wild pitches and committing three errors. The Hoyas capitalized with three hits, including a leadoff double by sophomore first baseman Jason Boice and a single by freshman centerfielder Carlos Gazitua, who has been leading the offense over the past two weeks.

“[Gazitua] has been hitting the crap out of the ball,” Wilk said. “He stepped into the three hole and is playing great. He’s hitting in a position where not too many freshman hit.”

The development of the Hoya freshman has been a key to Georgetown’s recent progress. In addition to Gazitua, Field and freshman catcher Michael Lombardi have played exceptionally.

In his first college start Field pitched a complete game versus Howard, allowing five hits and two runs, striking out seven and walking only one. The Hoyas won the game 4-2.

“They [the Bison] didn’t have too many good swings off him [Field],” Wilk said. “He had his breaking ball working. He kept them off balance.”

Lombardi, meanwhile, has been a rock behind the plate, starting all but one game and catching all 16 innings against Cleveland State.

“He’s done a terrific job with pitchers. He’s blocking everything we throw, giving confidence to the pitchers to throw the curve ball in the dirt.”

Out of all the recent improvements, the greatest steps forward for the Hoyas have been in terms of pitching. In the Hoyas’ 16-0 drudging of Coppin State last Thursday, junior left hander Eric Sutton dominated for five innings, giving up only two hits and no runs before handing the ball over to Pina, who only allowed one hit in the final four innings.

“He [Sutton] was dominant,” Wilk said. “[He’s been] throwing the ball pretty hard and he has a big-time breaking ball – a Major League breaking ball.”

If Sutton, Field, Pina, Vankosi, Arizin and senior Randy Erwin continue to throw strikes, and the Hoya defense remains tight, Georgetown will continue to play teams close.

But right now, everyone is taking one game at a time, trying to build on the positives of the past three weeks.

“To a man, we recognize that we are playing much better than we did three weeks ago,” Head Coach Peter Wilk said. “It’s like night and day.”