George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Liberty
GW Wins at Liberty in 10 Innings
3/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 11, 2007
LYNCHBURG, VA - Senior shortstop Michael Parker (Newton, MA/Newton South) hit two home runs, including the game-winner in the top of the 10th inning, and drove in four runs to propel George Washington (2-11) to a dramatic 6-5 win over Liberty University (12-5) at Worthington Stadium Sunday afternoon.
Senior RHP Derek Haese (Littleton, CO/Dakota Ridge/UC-San Diego) pitched the final four innings of the game and allowed no runs and just one hit to earn his first win of the season. Tim John (0-1) was saddled with the loss for the Flames. The extra-inning comes just one day after the Colonials lost 7-6 in 10 innings at Liberty.
In Sunday's contest, GW once again jumped out to the early lead. In the top of the second, sophomore Chris Marsicano (Old Tappan, NJ/Bergen Catholic) laced a two-out single to right field. Junior Gavin Swanson (Reisterstown, MD/Calvert Hall College HS) was up next and he blasted a home run (1) to right field to make it 2-0 in favor of the Colonials.
Liberty responded in the bottom half of the frame when David Giammaresi's double scored Aaron Grijalva. The Flames added another run in the fourth inning to tie the game at two runs apiece.
In the bottom of the fifth, Liberty took the lead. Errol Hollinger led-off with a walk and moved over to second on Kenneth Negron's single to left field. A balk by GW pitcher Bobby Lucas (Baltimore, MD/Calvert Hall College HS) moved both base runners into scoring position with nobody out. Phil John then reached on an infield single to load the bases. Garrett Young followed with single to left field that scored two runs. John later scored and gave the Flames the 5-2 lead when Grijalva grounded into a double play.
GW answered in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at five. Sophomore Doug Eizen (Philadelphia, PA/The Haverford School) singled into left field and then advanced to second on Mickey Shupin's (Sea Girt, NJ/Wall) groundout to third base. Freshman Tom Zebroski (Port Washington, NY/Paul Schreiber) reached on a single to right field. With runners on the corners, Liberty made a pitching change with Michael Parker due up.
Parker greeted the new Flames' pitcher, Tim John, with a three-run, game-tying home run into left field. With the two ball clubs tied at five in the tenth, Parker led off the inning and hit his second home run of the game (4) to break the tie and give GW the 6-5 lead.
Haese (1-3) retired the four batters he faced in the bottom half of the frame to preserve the win.
Kruer finished the day with three hits. Zebroski, Marsicano and Parker all added two hits each. Parker was 2-for-3 with two runs and four RBI. The senior is now slugging .741 and has an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 1.162, both the best marks on the team. He also leads the club in batting average (.389), on-base percentage (.421), runs scored (9), hits (21), RBI (10), doubles (7), home runs (4) and total bases (40).
George Washington is set to make their 2007 home debut on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. when they host William & Mary at Barcroft Park. It is the first of six home games in six days for the Colonials.
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