The GW men’s baseball team easily won a pair of games this week against the University of Maryland Baltimore County and Towson University, both by double digits, to extend its winning streak to four games.
GW (7-7) traveled to Baltimore Wednesday afternoon to square off against the Towson Tigers (5-4) and came out with a 10-0 victory. Sophomore starter Josh Wilkie pitched lights out for six innings, allowing just one hit and one walk. The bullpen mopped up the final three innings for Wilkie’s first win of the season and the Colonials’ first shutout since last March.
“(Wilkie) was outstanding,” GW head coach Tom Walter said. “To throw six innings and only allow three base runners; you can’t do much better than that.”
A two-out rally in the top of the second inning gave GW more than enough offense, as freshman Josh Goldberg doubled in two runners and then came home on sophomore Matt Owens’ fourth home run of the season.
Owens finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Goldberg went 1-for-5 with three RBIs. Junior third baseman Ryan Roberson had another solid game, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI, which came on his third home run of the year.
“I think we have done a better job (with) situational hitting and that’s what it takes to be a good college baseball team,” Walter said. “We got starting catcher Joe Michalski back from injury today and that allows us to have our normal lineup out there. That will really help us.”
The Colonials blasted UMBC (2-9) Tuesday, 16-3, using a barrage of home runs at Barcroft Park. The Colonials hit six long balls, the most in any game this season, and used a seven-run sixth inning to pull away and easily defeat the Retrievers.
Leading the home run fest was junior captain Anthony Raglani, who hit his first and second home runs of the year while going 3-for-5 with four RBIs and three runs scored. Goldberg, Owens and Roberson also hit home runs while combining for six RBIs. Junior Geoff Milsom capped off the seven-run sixth inning with a three run homer, his first of the season
Sophomore starting pitcher Dan Pfau threw another solid six innings, allowing one run on six hits while striking out three. Pfau picked up his second win of the season.
The Colonials, who started 3-7, have moved to .500 after sweeping a double-header against the University of Vermont Sunday and winning both games this week. After the Colonials lost just three home game all of last season, GW has started this year 5-0 at Barcroft Park.
“We are built for Barcroft. It is a hitters ballpark and we are tailor-made for hitting,” Walter said. “What we need to do is win our home games and go .500 on the road.”
The Colonials start a 14-game, 19-day home stand against Cleveland State (0-3) on Friday, the first game of a three-game series.
“We have 11 non-conference games before our first conference game against University of Massachusetts,” Walter said. “We are going to try some guys at different positions so that we can set a lineup for the rest of the season.”
