At certain points during their 10-day trip to Florida over spring break, Head Coach Pete Wilk and the members of the baseball team must have felt as if the wins were literally slipping through their fingers. A rash of defensive errors plagued the Hoyas as they compiled a disheartening 4-5 record during their stint in the Sunshine State.
“My overall impression is disappointment,” Wilk said Wednesday of his dreary spring vacation. “If we had held on to the ball, we would have won six games, not four. I can’t get that out of my mind – we have got to get better defensively. We are making far too many errors and giving up far too many runs.”
After spending most of the winter months cooped up indoors, the young Hoya squad hoped that some time in the Southern sun would be just what they needed to grow. But Georgetown had trouble emerging from its gloomy fog, dropping the first three games to Ohio State, Bowling Green and Northeastern by a combined score of 25-6. The 7-5 defeat at the hands of the Buckeyes on March 2 was most frustrating, as the Hoyas relinquished a two-run lead, then rallied back, only to strand the tying runs on base when junior shortstop atthew Bouchard struck out in the ninth.
The next three matches went in the Hoyas’ favor, as the club downed Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne, 5-3, gained sweet revenge on Bowling Green with a 2-1 decision and came back for more against lowly IPFW, 11-8. Bouchard redeemed himself in the second game against the Mastadons, leading a furious comeback with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that knotted the score at eight. Sophomore outfielder Kelly Muir belted an RBI double in extra innings to give the Hoyas the win.
Their vacation record evened at .500, Georgetown proceeded to fumble a pair of one-run heartbreakers away. Although the Hoyas again rallied late against Akron, and Bouchard was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, passed balls spoiled any chances of extra-inning heroics as the Zips prevailed 7-6 in 10 innings. The next day proved even more frustrating, as senior reliever Mark Dutmers took a one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth only to see two Black Knights of Army trot across home plate, another Hoya victory fading in their wake.
The Hoyas ended their break on an encouraging note, though, topping the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky behind a Georgetown single-game record 13 strikeouts from sophomore righty Jimmy Saris. Saris, a transfer from Duke, has been one of the few feel-good stories of the Hoyas’ young season, compiling a 2-2 record that Wilk claims would be better if not for errors in the field.
“[Jimmy] has been outstanding,” He’s 2-2 and should be 3-1, if not 4-0,” Wilk said of the Great Falls, Va. native. “He is a beast of a competitor, and he throws strikes, and he has control over three pitches – that will do it for you at this level.”
Wilk was also impressed by the bats of Bouchard and senior centerfielder Mark McLaughlin.
“Anytime you talk about offense you have to talk about cLaughlin and Bouchard,” Wilk said over the phone Wednesday. “I don’t know what they are hitting, but they are doing well.”
As of Wednesday, McLaughlin sat atop the team leader board at .375 with seven doubles and a .500 slugging percentage, while Bouchard is hitting .328 and leads the team in RBIs with 15.
Both sluggers had a field day earlier in the week, when Georgetown pounded Coppin State 12-0 in their first game since returning from Florida. Bouchard knocked in McLaughlin to start a four-run fifth inning, and senior Joseph Graziano thumped a two-run homer in a seventh-inning pinch hit appearance. While the outburst was encouraging, Wilk was far from satisfied.
“We did what we should have done against Coppin,” Wilk said of the pasting applied to the winless Eagles. “That’s a program that is struggling for bodies right now, and the only way we were going to give it up is if our pitchers walked guys, and our pitchers have been throwing well for us this year.”
Freshman southpaw Alex Meyer did his part to ensure a Hoya victory, allowing no runs and only four hits over six innings. Sophomore lefty Andy Ferich and freshman right hander Billy Concannon spelled Meyer late in the game and combined to hurl another scoreless three frames.
Wilk hopes Tuesday’s victory will be the start of a new, more focused team effort resulting in fewer errors and more tallies in the win column. The eighth-year head man’s patience is running low with his team’s bumbling mistakes in the field.
“Overall, our infield defense has been atrocious,” Wilk said. “If you count the errors for the infield, I figure it’s closing in on 30, and that’s just ridiculous.”
Wilk has rearranged his rank and file countless times in hopes of forming an infield that does not resemble a leaky sieve, but so far, no combination has suited his fancy. While Bouchard has been stellar at the bat, he leads the team with nine errors and a .893 fielding percentage. Aggravated by the inconsistencies on the line-up card and the scoreboard, Wilk feels he may be running out of options.
“We have been trying to plug holes since we started,” Wilk said. “We have made changes, and I don’t see anything more we can do that we haven’t already tried.”
But with spring weather having seemingly arrived in the District, the Hoyas look forward to warmer temperatures and an open schedule of opportunity.
Wilk put his charges through their first practices on their home field since the end of January this week, and this weekend’s four-game series with Penn at Shirley Povich Field will finally mark the home-opener for a team that has played all 17 of its games in unfamiliar surroundings.
“I told the kids yesterday that we have the chance to right the ship with this week of baseball, and if we get back on our game we could have a very good week,” a weary but willing Wilk said on Wednesday afternoon. “This is something we have been looking forward to.”
First pitch is set for noon on Saturday.
