Friday, April 11 to Sunday, April 13, William and Mary baseball (13-23, 7-5 CAA) saw its two-series winning streak grind to a halt as it dropped two out of three games to North Carolina Wilmington (19-19, 7-6 CAA) at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C. Tuesday, April 15, the Tribe suffered an 8-6 midweek loss against Longwood (10-28, 4-9 Big South).
The Tribe entered the weekend having won five of its previous six conference games on the back of perhaps the best offense in the Coastal Athletic Association. As a team, William and Mary leads the league in batting average, hits, total bases and runs scored. In series wins over Hofstra (13-24, 3-9 CAA) and Elon (14-22, 5-7 CAA) earlier this spring, the Green and Gold racked up 73 hits, scored 51 total runs and mounted four comebacks.
Prior to Friday’s game, UNCW head baseball coach Randy Hood made his team’s priority clear: shutting down the William and Mary lineup.
“They’ve got a really good hitting team,” Hood said. “Lot of guys back from last year, and they’ve swung the bat well. I think they’re top ten in the country in batting average. Now, pitching-wise, it seems like they’ve struggled a little bit. But their philosophy right now is just to try and outscore people. And so it’ll be a job for us to go out there and hopefully throw the ball well and hold their bats down.”
Along with being high-scoring, many of the games William and Mary played in the lead-up to the UNCW series were defined by their nail-biting finishes, with five of them being decided by one run.
“We’re starting to get used to the types of games we’re playing,” William and Mary head coach Rob McCoy said April 6, after his team pulled out a thrilling 13-12 comeback victory over Elon. “It is resiliency. Guys aren’t being bothered by being down, but at the same time, we also know what we’re capable of doing.”
There was no shortage of excitement in the meetings between the Tribe and the Seahawks, as two of them featured significant lead swings. However, UNCW largely kept the William and Mary offense in check. The hosts won Friday’s game 9-1, lost Saturday’s contest 8-4 in 12 innings and took Sunday’s rubber match 8-4.
Although the Seahawks executed the strategy Hood outlined, becoming the first team to hold the Tribe under 14 total runs in a series since Kansas State did from March 7 to March 9, McCoy wasn’t discouraged by his lineup’s performance against one of the CAA’s top pitching staffs.
“The one thing that the players are starting to figure out — we’re kind of helping them navigate through the season — they’ve never really [had] an offensive team mindset here,” McCoy said. “We’re trying to get them into that mindset, which we’ve had some pretty good success with. But when you face good arms, and you’re a good lineup, those arms, they want to do everything they can to meet the moment. So they’re not just throwing against a normal team. They know we’re good, and so they’re eating, sleeping, prepping to do everything they can to be good against a good lineup.”
“That’s what Wilmington came out and did,” McCoy said. “They came out and they wanted to show that their arms are better than our offense. And in two of the three games, they did that, and in the other one, they didn’t. We scored eight runs. That’s pretty on par. That’s actually a good weekend against their arms.”
The opener saw UNCW senior starting pitcher Zane Taylor and junior reliever Trace Baker stifle the Tribe lineup, limiting it to just five hits, one away from a season-low, and one run. The Green and Gold struck out eight times and struggled to make solid contact. It took William and Mary until the fourth inning, when senior outfielder Christian Rush hit a solo homer that scored the Tribe’s only run of the game, to put a ball in play that wasn’t a grounder or a weak fly out.
The Green and Gold’s only other scoring opportunities came after a 90-minute weather delay interrupted the game during the bottom of the fourth. Graduate student outfielder Ben Parker hit a two-out double in the fifth inning, and junior outfielder Charlie Iriotakis hit a two-out infield single in the ninth inning before advancing to second base on defensive indifference. Freshman infielder Jamie Laskofski flew out to end the fifth, and junior catcher Jerry Barnes III struck out to end the game.
Parker and senior outfielder Lucas Carmichael extended their respective hitting streaks to 19 games each. However, the Tribe’s overall offensive effort could not keep pace with that of the Seahawks. UNCW jumped on William and Mary sophomore pitcher Chad Yates in the first inning, scoring five runs before he could record two outs.
Some of Yates’ replacements fared better — sophomore reliever Tom Borque and junior reliever Connor Kolarov combined to toss 4.0 innings while allowing zero earned runs — but the Tribe never got within striking distance of its opponent after the first inning.
William and Mary was also plagued by errors, a common theme throughout the season. The Tribe’s first defensive play of the game saw sophomore first baseman Anthony Greco drop a routine throw, allowing UNCW junior outfielder Mac Gillespie to safely reach base. The Green and Gold went on to commit three errors in the fourth inning alone and finished the game with five errors to the Seahawks’ zero.
Although McCoy was disappointed by the Tribe’s defensive performance, it did not surprise him. Plagued by injuries for nearly the entire season, the Green and Gold lack position player depth. As such, the left side of the William and Mary infield is manned by multiple players out of their natural position.
“Our defense has been awful all year,” McCoy said. “We’ve got a freshman [Laskofski] playing third that really should be playing the middle infield. We have a second baseman [graduate student utilityman Derek Holmes] that was a Division III first baseman. We’re lacking depth behind the plate, which is putting a lot of pressure on guys. On top of that, we have 11 healthy position players, so we really don’t have anybody to put in there. We’re just doing the best we can because we’re as injured as we possibly could be. So there’s really nothing to do about it.”
The Tribe managed to play much better defense during Saturday’s 8-4 extra-inning victory, committing one ultimately harmless error. The game started similarly to its predecessor. The Green and Gold struggled to hit the ball hard against UNCW sophomore starting pitcher Connor Marshburn while the Seahawks steadily built a lead against William and Mary freshman starting pitcher Zach Boyd. Entering the sixth inning, the Tribe had recorded just one hit and trailed 3-0.
Momentum began to shift as Marshburn ran out of gas, walking graduate student infielder Owen Wilson, Parker and Laskofski in quick succession. However, outs from Barnes III and Carmichael gave UNCW a chance at escaping the inning. With junior reliever Aubrey Smith on the mound, Rush stepped to the plate and blasted a go-ahead grand slam into center field, causing the Seahawks’ Gillespie to tumble over the wall.
McCoy identified Rush’s homer as the game’s most pivotal moment.
“[That inning] started with a tough walk, and then we actually worked two more walks,” McCoy said. “And they were tough, like close pitches and grinding at-bats. The pitcher really had to work. The guy on the bump really had to work through that. And he gets to Christian and throws some nice pitches and makes a mistake that happens to be right in Christian’s wheelhouse. And he put a great swing on it. To his credit, he’s been swinging the bat really well. Even though he’s not getting the results he was early on [in the season], he’s putting good barrels on balls. And that one happened to go out for a huge homer for us. It was a tremendous moment in the game.”
Rush’s second home run in as many days made the score 4-3 and gave the Tribe its first lead of the series. However, the William and Mary offense soon entered another slump, advancing just one runner to second base over the next three innings. The Green and Gold’s cold streak allowed UNCW to even the score in the bottom of the 8th. UNCW junior infielder Ryker Galaska came across the plate on a fielder’s choice after senior reliever Carter Lovasz loaded the bases with one out.
Lovasz managed to limit the damage to one run, but the Tribe entered the ninth inning looking to break the 4-4 tie. The Green and Gold could not push any runners across the plate, and Lovasz struck out the side to send the game into extra innings.
Neither the Tribe nor the Seahawks recorded a hit or a run in the 10th or the 11th innings. McCoy’s decision to keep Lovasz on the mound paid off, as he stifled the UNCW lineup until William and Mary eventually broke through in the top of the 12th. After a Wilson RBI single and a Parker three-run homer gave the Green and Gold an 8-4 lead, freshman pitcher Tyler Kelly induced three quick groundouts to clinch the Tribe’s victory.
Lovasz, who was awarded the win, gave up one hit and one earned run while striking out nine batters over 5.0 innings. His efforts anchored a dominant performance from the Tribe’s bullpen, which held the Seahawks to one run over the game’s final 9.0 innings. Senior pitcher Nick Lottchea relieved Boyd in the top of the fourth inning and tossed 3.0 scoreless frames before handing the ball over to Lovasz.
McCoy heaped praise on the performances of the bullpen, Lottchea and Lovasz, particularly lauding the latter.
“[Lovasz] was just spectacular,” McCoy said. “He had an extra week off because he didn’t throw last weekend, so his arm was feeling good, and we were able to push him a little bit. I think we pushed him up to 83 pitches. On that stage, against that team at their place with a tie ballgame, that couldn’t have been more important for us in that win.”
On the backs of their respective home runs, Rush and Parker combined to drive in seven of the Tribe’s eight runs. Wilson, who finished with an RBI single and a walk, drove in the other. Parker and Carmichael, both of whom racked up two hits on the day, extended their hitting streaks to 20 games each.
The victory marked William and Mary’s tenth comeback win of the year and its first in extra innings.
Sunday’s game was also decided by a score of 8-4, but it was the hosts that emerged victorious. Once again, UNCW jumped out to an early lead, scoring two first-inning runs against William and Mary freshman pitcher Jack Weight. The Tribe got off to its third consecutive slow start, with the first seven members of its lineup getting retired in order.
It was not until the third frame that the Green and Gold’s bats started to heat up. With two outs and a man on first, Parker launched a home run into right-center field. Laskofski kept the inning alive with a single that brought up Carmichael, who hit another homer that made the score 4-2. The long balls extended the duo’s respective hitting streaks to 21 games.
However, William and Mary would record just two hits for the rest of the afternoon. UNCW freshman starter Cam Bagwell tossed 7.0 near-scoreless frames, with the Tribe’s four-run third inning standing as the only blemish on his record.
William and Mary played respectable defense for the second straight day, committing just one error, but the pitching proved problematic. Seven different pitchers took the mound for the Green and Gold, but all gave up at least one run, save sophomore pitcher Daniel Lingle, who threw 2.2 scoreless innings, and junior pitcher Noah Hertzler, who threw 1.0 scoreless innings. The Seahawks slowly accumulated runs as the game progressed, and the Tribe found no solution to their opponents’ steady onslaught.
Tuesday, April 15, William and Mary fell to Longwood 8-6 at Plumeri Park in Williamsburg, Va. The Tribe has not won a midweek game since it beat Old Dominion (12-23, 7-9 Sun Belt) March 19. McCoy chalked up the defeat, and the streak of midweek defeats before it, to exhaustion and a lack of depth.
“Honestly, I just don’t think we showed up,” McCoy said. “That doesn’t take anything away from Longwood. I think they played a good game, and they pitched well enough to win. But if you see us compete on the weekend and just absolutely empty the tank in a three-game series, using every arm we have, and every position player plays every single pitch. And then you get Monday off, and then you show up Tuesday. It takes a special effort to show up and still be as competitive in that scenario.”
“Really, I’ve been in this situation before as a coach, when you’re short on guys, when you’re short on arms, short on players,” McCoy said. “As much as you don’t want to, it’s hard to fight the urge to conserve energy for the conference games, because those are what really matter this time of year. And it won’t be long before we’re in a position to have guys that can come in and help us compete better in midweek games. But right now, we’re probably not. We’re gonna fight like crazy to do it — it’s not taking anything away from our guys. But I’m not going to be upset by a midweek game when we show up and compete our tails off on the weekends. It’s just the situation we’re in right now.”
In the first four innings, it seemed as though the Green and Gold’s lineup had returned to form. Carmichael hit two home runs, Wilson slashed an RBI single and William and Mary racked up eight hits and six runs. Carmichael and Parker both stretched their hitting streaks to 22 games, tying Will Rhymes ’05 for the second-longest streak in program records, which dates back to 2004.
McCoy attributed the outfielders’ record-setting performances to their abilities to live in the moment from at-bat to at-bat.
“We talk about approaching things the same way every time,” McCoy said. “They’ve really bought into that, playing pitch-to-pitch, not getting caught up in the moment, not getting caught up in the game, not caring about a bad at-bat and getting to the next pitch and the next at-bat. Those are the things that we talk about and work on a lot. And those two guys have bought in extremely well to that. And so it doesn’t surprise me that at least once a game, they figure out how to hit the ball where nobody’s standing. We’re really excited for them. They’re getting rewarded for the work that they’ve put into buying into our mental game.”
William and Mary senior starting pitcher Reed Interdonato gave up just two hits in 3.0 innings pitched. Longwood manufactured a third-inning run on a steal of home plate before scoring two runs against graduate student pitcher Ryan Feczko, Interdonato’s replacement, but the Tribe nevertheless entered the fifth frame with a 6-3 advantage.
It was then that the problems that beset the Tribe during the UNCW series began to rear their heads: sloppy defense, inconsistent pitching and a cold lineup. William and Mary did not record a run from the fifth inning onward and committed two sixth-inning errors that allowed the visitors to make the score 6-5. Two seventh-inning wild pitches helped give Longwood a lead it didn’t relinquish.
It seemed as though the Tribe was mounting a threat in the final frame. Rush opened the ninth inning with a single, graduate student infielder Ethan Rothstein struck out and Greco was hit by a pitch, putting two men on base with one out. Holmes proceeded to fly out, bringing Iriotakis to the plate representing the winning run. Freshman pitcher Brennen Card was brought in to replace Greco on the basepaths.
Card’s entry into the game was made necessary by the team’s empty bench, McCoy explained.
“We had [runners on] first and second,” McCoy said. “We’d talked about it before the inning that Greco is a great base runner, but he’s not the fleetest of foot. And we talked about if we got to two runners on, and he was the backside runner — the exact situation that happened, where there got to be two outs — we’re going to need someone to be able to score on a double in the gap. And we don’t have any [healthy] position players [on the bench]. We had no position players left. So we went to our fastest pitcher, we thought, or one of our most athletic pitchers. We put him in the game and thought, ‘We hit a ball in the gap. He just runs around the bases.’”
Unfortunately for the Tribe, Longwood graduate student pitcher Isaiah Brewington threw a pitch in the dirt while pitching to Iriotakis. It briefly seemed as though the ball would skip past Longwood sophomore catcher Jae’dan Carter, but the backstop recovered, sending the Tribe baserunners scrambling back to their bases. The inexperienced Card was caught too many steps off first and was promptly picked off, ending the game.
“I think, unfortunately, that was the one situation that was going to get messed up, because I don’t think we could have read that down angle read,” McCoy said. “The ball was in the dirt. It kicked away. Our guy at second probably should have advanced to third, but he started to, and he stopped. So the runner at first started to and stopped, but he went a little further, because he doesn’t know what the heck he’s doing. And then he just went too far. The catcher threw to first and picked him off. It is what it is. When you’re in that situation, and you’re trying to get creative and you’re trying to try and do whatever you can to help the team win, sometimes it looks crazy and makes you look dumb.”
William and Mary will return to the field Friday, April 18, when it begins a three-game home series against Campbell (15-21, 6-6 CAA). Sitting in a three-way tie for second in the CAA standings, the Tribe needs to take multiple games from the Camels to stay near the top of the leaderboards. McCoy said the Green and Gold will approach the weekend’s series in the same way they approach every series.
“We’re going to do the same thing we’ve been doing,” McCoy said. “We’re going to try to throw as many strikes as we can, keep people off base, play as good a defense as we can, and then we’re going to try to crush the ball around and see what happens. We’re kind of both in the same boat. I think we have the advantage at home. They’re a good team, but they have struggled on the road a little bit, and we’re an okay team, and we’ve struggled on the road, so we’ve been a lot better at home. So we’re going to try to see who we can match up with, who we can pitch with, and see if we can outlast them in three games.”
