With a come-from-behind victory Sunday, the GW baseball team won two of its three weekend Atlantic 10 conference games at Rhode Island. The Colonials (30-17, 12-7 A-10) received solid pitching from Jason Baker in game one and strong hitting from senior Ross Smirne in game three to pull out two wins at Bill Beck Field.
GW 7, URI 6
Sunday, April 29
Down 6-4 in the ninth inning, the Colonials scored three unearned runs, giving them a 7-6 comeback victory over Rhode Island at Bill Beck Field Sunday. Travis Crowder’s two-run single tied the game at 6-6. He would later score the go-ahead run on Tony Dokoupil’s RBI double. Closer Bryan Beggs protected GW’s one-run lead, recording three quick outs for his ninth save of the season.
GW’s three-run ninth inning rally came after Rhode Island’s two-run seventh inning put the Rams ahead.
URI had the early lead after two innings. An RBI single from John Maloney and a two-run double from Dave Rodrigues gave the Rams the 3-0 advantage. Dokoupil made it 3-1 in the fourth when he scored on a Rams error. URI added another run in the fourth inning but GW kept it close with a three-run seventh that tied the game at 4-4. Jake Wald singled and stole home and Ross Smirne had an RBI double and scored in the rally.
URI 4, GW 3
Saturday, April 28
Rhode Island’s John Maloney scored on Justin Lamboy’s seventh-inning suicide squeeze with the bases loaded to break a tie game and give the Rams a 4-3 victory in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader.
URI tied the game 3-3 in the sixth inning on Mike Schiappa’s solo homerun. From there the Rams loaded the bases in the seventh inning and with one out Lamboy laid down the bunt to score Maloney.
The loss was Greg Conden’s (6-4) first A-10 conference loss this season.
The Rams got on the board first in the back-and-forth contest with a sacrifice fly from Schiappa. GW tied the game for the first time in the second inning, scoring off a URI fielding error. Dokoupil gave the Colonials a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning with an RBI double. Maloney then tied it up again 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single.
The Colonials regained the lead 3-2 when Jake Wald singled in a run in the sixth inning, but the lead was short lived as a solo homerun and bases-loaded bunt gave URI the win.
GW 9 URI 0
Saturday, April 28
Jason Baker pitched a complete-game shutout en route to GW’s 9-0 victory over URI Saturday. The junior pitched seven scoreless innings allowing four hits while striking out six. He picked up his sixth win improving to 6-3 on the season.
Baker’s dominant effort on the mound was equaled by his teammates’ performance at the plate. GW put its runs up early scoring four in the first inning. The Colonials added two runs in the second to go ahead 6-0. GW kept the pressure on, adding another run in the third and two more in the fourth.
Travis Crowder went 3-for-3 scoring four runs and Mike Bassett went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
