The GW baseball team held on for an extra-inning victory over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County Wednesday afternoon. The win comes one day after a two-out, four-run inning lifted the Colonials over George Mason Tuesday at Barcroft Park.

Big two-out rallies by the Colonials made the difference in both games providing the team with an offensive lift when they needed it most.

“Those are the games you have to win – the types of games we didn’t win earlier in the year,” head coach Tom Walter said. “We’re a young team and it took time to get everyone on the same page. This is a sign we’re making progress.”

With his five RBIs over the two games, senior Dan Rouhier surpassed Joe Beichert and moved into first on the team’s all-time RBI list with 172.

GW 6, UMBC 3 (11 innings)
Wednesday, April 25

GW’s three-run rally broke open the game in the 11th inning for the Colonials and lifted them to a 6-3 victory over the host Retrievers. With the score tied at 3-3 after 10 innings, Mike Bassett’s solo home run put the Colonials ahead 4-3. Chris Barry kept up the momentum with a single to centerfield. He then stole second and advanced to third on Travis Crowder’s infield single. With two outs, Ross Smirne’s two-run single to center added some insurance as Barry and Crowder scored.

“We scored six runs and four of them came with two outs,” Walter said. “Anytime you can score like that it means you are getting clutch hits. We had a three-run inning with two outs and that made the difference in the ballgame.”

The Colonials would only need the one run, as closer Bryan Beggs ended the game by pitching a scoreless eleventh inning.

Leading up to extra innings, GW got on the board early with a two-run third inning. Jake Wald led off with a double, stole third, and scored on Nick Iovacchini’s sacrifice fly to center. Tony Dokoupil put up another run with his two-out homer.

The Retrievers kept themselves in the game with single runs scattered over three innings. They put up one in the fourth when the leadoff batter singled and then reached home after a walk and a fielder’s choice. The Retrievers scored another in the seventh inning. UMBC tied it up in the eighth inning when Chris Worth came in for starting pitcher Glen Skutnik. The leadoff man singled to right field and advanced on a sacrifice bunt. He would score after a Jake Wald fielding error.

Skutnik (4-3) showed signs of improvement shaking off his last three losses with a strong outing. He pitched four-hit ball over seven innings, giving up two runs and striking out four.

“(Today’s outing was) as good as Glen has pitched,” Walter said. “He pitched extremely well today, we’re glad he’s one of our guys.”

GW 6, George Mason 5
Tuesday, April 24

George Mason (27-16) jumped out to an early lead on the Colonials on Tuesday at Barcroft Park, but GW was able comeback to defeat the Patriots 6-5. The Patriots scored one run in each of the first three innings while holding the Colonials scoreless. It all changed in the bottom of the third inning, when the Colonials scored four runs with two outs.

Nick Iovacchini started the rally with a two-out single to right center field. Tony Dokoupil’s walk put runners on first and second. Both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Iovacchini scored on Matt Krimmel’s single. Dan Rouhier stepped up and belted a homerun to left center, his seventh of the year, putting the Colonials up 4-3.

GW added some insurance in the fourth. Jeff Fertitta made it 5-3 with his first career homerun to straight away center and Rouhier added another in the fifth with an RBI ground out. This moved him to a tie for first on the all time RBI list at GW with 171.

“I’m excited for Danny,” Walter said. “He’s been a four-year player for us and one of my first recruits. He represents a transformation of the program, because from their freshman year on we’ve been a winning program.”

George Mason rallied in the top of the ninth off closer Bryan Beggs but fell one run short. Stephen Johnson singled to second base to start it off and advanced on a wild pitch. After Beggs struck out the next batter George Mason’s No. 5 hitter Brian Anderson blasted a two-run homer to right center. The Patriots couldn’t finish off the comeback though, as Beggs was able to hold on for the win.

Ron Christie (5-1) got the win going six innings giving up three runs on nine hits. He added three strikeouts to his season total of 25.

The Colonials return to Atlantic 10 play this weekend at Rhode Island.