The GW baseball team split a pair of games early this week, defeating Old Dominion University 8-6 at home Tuesday before falling at James Madison University 5-2 Wednesday.

The Colonials were close to winning both games, taking a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth against JMU, but the Dukes came up with four runs to win the game.

For the first seven innings, GW (3-7) looked like it was in control, as starting pitcher Josh Wilkie mowed down JMU (8-3) batters.

But the sophomore left the game with one out and a man on first in the bottom of the eighth and head coach Tom Walter called in junior Avi Rasowsky, who could not close out the game.

The Dukes scored three runs off him, as Rasowsky’s early season struggles continued. In ten innings of work, he has allowed eight runs on 11 hits.

“He doesn’t really have confidence right now,” Walter said of Rasowsky. “He is not that far off but he made a mental error not covering first and allowing another hit.”

That mental error came with a man on second and the score tied. On a routine ground ball, Rasowsky failed to cover first giving JMU had men at the corners. Nate Schill followed with a triple to the gap in left center field that scored both runners, and Schill scored on a throwing error.

The Colonials went down in order in the ninth to end the game.

Walter said he chose Rasowsky over junior closer Nick Koken because he wanted to try something new out of the bullpen.

“Nick could have gone today but I decided to try to change it up a little bit,” Walter said.

On Tuesday at Barcroft Park, GW showed a little muscle in avenging last week’s loss to Old Dominion. The Colonials racked up 10 hits in an 8-6 victory over the Monarchs (5-6).

Sophomore Dan Pfau got the win for GW, allowing six runs in seven and two-thirds innings. Last year’s Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Tom Shanley went two-for-four in the win to extend his hit streak to seven games, which he then extended to eight against JMU.

Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, the Colonials scored three runs to go up 3-1. After Old Dominion tied the score at four, GW tacked on four runs on four hits to go up 8-4. The Monarchs added two runs but did not threaten the Colonials lead.

GW’s output Tuesday was an encouraging sign to the Colonials, who said they are starting to come out of an early season offensive funk.

“We are just short of where we need to be,” junior Geoff Milsom said. “We have cleaned up our act since that opening series at Florida Atlantic but we are still struggling at the plate.”

The Colonials return to action this weekend in a three game series against University of Vermont.