As William and Mary students scattered to all corners of the globe for their spring break, Tribe baseball headed to North Carolina, where the team picked up their first away victory of the season in a 4-2 victory over the Campbell Camels.
Although the Camels (4-9) held the Tribe (5-10) to no hits in the first three innings while Campbell connected for two, the College was the first to get on the scoreboard. In the top of the fifth, a single from junior outfielder Owen Socher sent sophomore first baseman Matthew Trehub and sophomore infielder Patrick Ryan running home to give the College the first lead of the game, 2-0. Junior infielder Nick Butts capped off the inning with one more single to give the Tribe a three-run cushion going into the top of the sixth, 3-0.
The Camels weren’t able to put together an answer in the bottom of the sixth as junior Bodie Sheehan, who was last month named the CAA’s Pitcher of the Week for the week of Feb. 20, struck out three Campbell batters in quick succession. The College was then able to put some padding on their lead in the top of the sixth as senior outfielder Luca Farina put up a run on a single from Trehub, bringing the Tribe’s lead to 4-0.
Although Sheehan went five straight innings without allowing a run, the Camels couldn’t be kept off the scoreboard entirely. They scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth as Campbell’s Christian Jones put a home run past the boards with a runner already on base, cutting the College’s lead to 4-2.
Thanks to the Tribe’s pitching contingent, 4-2 was as close as Campbell would get to tying the match. Sheehan’s strong final inning followed by a shutdown performance from the Tribe bullpen in senior Charlie Fletcher and sophomore Wade Strain kept the Camels to zero hits in the final three innings.
The final score of 4-2 improved the College’s record to 5-10 and marked their first away victory of the season as well as their second win in a row. Sheehan recorded his first win of the season in his fourth seven-inning pitching effort, bringing his personal record to 1-1. Freshman infielder Matt McDermott was the only College player to record multiple hits in the match in his third multi-hit performance of the season.
The College will continue the away series against Campbell on in North Carolina as it looks for its first series sweep of the season in Saturday’s doubleheader against the Camels.