March 15, William and Mary baseball sported a paltry 5-15 record and lost 12 of its last 13 games. After the conclusion of last weekend’s sweep over Stony Brook (21-20, 8-10 CAA), the Tribe (19-24, 12-6 CAA) has won four of its last five series, sits second in the Coastal Athletic Association standings and is clawing its way towards an overall winning percentage of .500.
During its Friday, April 25 to Sunday, April 27 road trip to Joe Nathan Field in Stony Brook, N.Y., head coach Rob McCoy’s squad put the traits that have revived its season on full display. Power? The Tribe scored 31 runs and hit seven homers over three games, run-ruling the Seawolves 15-0 Saturday, April 26. Resilience? William and Mary mounted its 13th and 14th comebacks of the season over the weekend, erasing a six-run deficit and pulling out an 8-6 victory Friday before recording another 8-6 win Sunday. Improved pitching? Stony Brook scored just 12 runs throughout the series, the lowest mark the Tribe has held an opponent to this year.
Friday’s contest began with a tactic common in William and Mary games — the Tribe trotted out an opener in the first inning. An opener is a pitcher who is only intended to stay on the mound for a few outs before he gives way to a reliever. The use of an opener often signals that a team lacks experienced starters who can stay on the mound for the long haul, which is true in William and Mary’s case.
The Tribe’s opener, freshman Jack Weight, has become one of the team’s more consistent low-leverage relievers over the past weeks and turned in one of the best outings of his career during an April 18 appearance against Campbell. However, Weight’s Friday night was off to a rocky start after another hallmark of William and Mary games — a defensive error — put Stony Brook freshman outfielder Nick Zampieron on first base. Zampieron dribbled a grounder up the third-base line, and sophomore first baseman Anthony Greco couldn’t corral the throw from freshman infielder Jamie Laskofski.
Weight proceeded to give up three home runs and a single, throw a wild pitch and walk a batter, a sequence that prompted his removal in favor of sophomore reliever Tom Borque. Borque allowed a two-RBI double before finally escaping the inning. The hosts sent 11 men to the plate and scored six runs in the frame.
Its opponent’s crooked number might have doomed the early-season iteration of the Tribe, but Friday’s version of the Green and Gold immediately began chipping into the deficit. The red-hot Laskofski, who leads all CAA freshmen in batting average and hits, smashed a near-home run to begin the second inning. Sophomore outfielder Chris Carson reached over the left-field fence to intercept it, but the ball dropped out of his glove and rolled back into play. Laskofski had to settle for a double and was quickly singled home by junior outfielder Charlie Iriotakis.
Bolstered by a pitching staff that did not give up another run and only gave up three more hits, William and Mary casually made its way back into contention. It drew within four in the fourth inning following a solo shot from senior outfielder Christian Rush. In the fifth inning, the Tribe drew within two following a home run from senior outfielder Lucas Carmichael and an RBI single from Greco. During the eighth inning, William and Mary vaulted into the lead following consecutive two-RBI doubles from graduate student outfielder Ben Parker and Carmichael. Sophomore pitcher Daniel Lingle shut the door on the Seawolves, allowing one run and no hits over the game’s final three innings, and the Tribe claimed an 8-6 victory.
The lineup turned in productive at-bats after falling into an early hole. On the night, the Green and Gold racked up 15 hits, including one from Parker, who extended his hitting streak to 27 games, two from Carmichael, who extended his on-base streak to 27 games, and three from Laskofski, who began a bid for his third CAA Rookie of the Week award of the season.
The defense, which McCoy recently described as “awful all year,” committed just one error, and the bullpen was stellar, with Borque, junior reliever Connor Kolarov, freshman pitcher Tyler Kelly and Lingle combining to throw 7.1 innings while giving up zero earned runs.
The following day, freshman pitcher Zach Boyd turned in a performance that qualified as not just William and Mary’s best start of the season but perhaps its best start in over a decade. Boyd hurled seven frames, allowed three hits and allowed zero runs. Due to an explosion by the William and Mary offense, the contest was called after the seventh inning, making Boyd’s effort the first complete-game shutout by a Tribe pitcher since 2013. His performance earned him the CAA Pitcher of the Week award Monday. By the end of the afternoon, the Green and Gold had held Stony Brook scoreless for 15 consecutive innings.
Boyd started his career with an earned run average of 45.00 after giving up five earned runs during a Feb. 16 game against Rhode Island. After Saturday’s game, his ERA had dropped to 5.97, the second-lowest mark on the pitching staff.
On offense, Boyd was supported by the Tribe’s usual suspects. Laskofski opened the scoring with an RBI triple, Parker finished with three hits and smashed the team’s second grand slam of the season and Carmichael drove in three runs courtesy of his second home run in two games.
The same trio helped lead the way during Sunday’s matinee, which followed a similar script to Friday’s matchup. The Tribe suffered one bad inning — this time, the sixth, where senior reliever Carter Lovasz gave up three runs — but the William and Mary staff stifled Stony Brook throughout the rest of the game, holding the Seawolves to three runs and five hits in the other eight frames. Senior pitcher Nick Lottchea gave up two runs over 3.0 innings, Lovasz allowed four over 3.2 and Kolarov, Lingle and senior reliever Reed Interdonato combined to keep the hosts scoreless over the final 2.1 frames.
Although the Green and Gold did not face a substantial deficit, only going down by a maximum of one run, the result was not assured until Laskofski hit a sixth-inning three-run homer that gave his team the lead for good. Parker extended his hitting streak to 29 games, putting him within striking distance of tying the modern-era program record of 32 games set by Ben Guez ’08 in 2008, and Carmichael blasted a home run for the third consecutive outing.
William and Mary has now won six straight games and five straight conference games, the latter being its longest streak since 2022. Its offense remains among the best in the CAA and has proven capable of making up most deficits. Its pitching staff has vastly improved from the beginning of the season and has identified building-block talents. Its defense, while subpar, has progressed in recent weeks from being the glaring Achilles’ heel it once was.
After taking on Virginia Military Institute in a midweek matchup (25-20, 5-10 SoCon) Wednesday, April 30 at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton, Va., the Tribe will return to Plumeri Park in Williamsburg, Va. for a three-game conference series against Charleston (24-18, 8-10 CAA) beginning Friday, May 2.
