George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
Richmond
Baseball Wins Rubber Game at Richmond, 6-5
3/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 30, 2008
RICHMOND, VA - Junior pitcher Pat Lehman (Fair Lawn, NJ/Fair Lehman) recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts to help lead George Washington (14-10, 4-2 A-10) past Richmond (12-14-1, 4-2 A-10) as the Colonials held on for the win, 6-5, in the third and final game of their Atlantic 10 Conference series early Sunday afternoon at Pitt Field in Richmond, VA.
It gave GW the series victory, after the teams split the first two contests. GW took game one, 15-11, but fell in game two, 1-0. The Colonials improved their all-time mark against the Spiders to 37-55. Overall, GW is now 8-3 in their past 11 games, including 6-2 on the road.
In Sunday's rubber game, Pat Lehman (4-0) took to the hill for the Colonials and struck out 10 in 7.2 innings of work to earn his fourth win of the season. The hard-throwing right-hander allowed four runs on eight hits and walked just one batter. Matt Trent (1-2) suffered the loss for Richmond after giving-up five runs, three earned, in just two innings pitched.
The Colonials were able to jump out to an early lead in Sunday's contest, plating three runs before Richmond ever had a chance to bat. With runners on second and third and one out, sophomore 1B Curtis Eward (Oakton, VA/Oakton) singled up the middle, allowing both runs to score. Eward came around to score two batters later, when Tim Reeves (Cumming, GA/North Forsyth) reached on a base hit to the second baseman. The Spiders made it 3-2 in the bottom half of the first inning, thanks to Evan Stehle's two-run double down the right field line.
GW added to their slim lead with two more runs in the top of the second inning. After a walk, a hit batter and a sac-bunt put runners on second on third, freshman 3B Brendon Kelliher (Sandwich, MA/Sandwich) pushed across the first run with a bunt-single to the third. Senior OF Charlie Kruer (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly lifted deep to leftfield, making it 5-2 in favor of the Colonials.
Richmond closed the gap with another two runs in their half of the fourth inning as four of the first five batters in the frame recorded base-hits, including RBI-singles from Derek Boliek and Chris Cuppia.
In the top of the sixth, GW got what would eventually become the winning run, thanks to a pair of Richmond errors and hustle from Tom Zebroski (Port Washington, NY/Paul Schreiber). Zebroski, the starting 2B, reached on a throwing error by the Spiders' third baseman and advanced to second on the poor throw. From there, he stole third base, and then scrambled home when the pitcher's throw over went wild, and made it 6-4 in favor of the visiting Colonials.
The Spiders attempted to rally in the final innings, but the Colonial pitching was up for the challenge. Lehman got the first two outs in Richmond's half of the eighth, and then gave way to sophomore Bobby Lucas (Baltimore, MD/Calvert Hall College HS), who struck out Boliek to end the inning. After Lucas allowed the first two batters to reach in the ninth, junior closer Jimmy Duggan (Jefferson, MD/John's Prospect Hall) came in and ended the Spiders' threat to earn his fourth save of the year.
Charlie Kruer finished the day 2-for-3 with one RBI and two doubles. The senior now has 17 doubles in 2008 and is on pace to finish the year with 39. The GW season record for doubles is 23 (Matt Krimmel, 2002). Tim Reeves went 2-for-4 with one RBI and continued his nine-game hit streak.
In the three-games against Richmond, Reeves hit .500 (6-for-12) with three doubles and three RBI for a slugging percentage of .750. The Spiders, who entered this weekend hitting .321 as a team and averaging 7.63 runs/game, were held to a .272 average and just 5.67 runs per contest by GW pitching.
George Washington, who has won their first two A-10 series this year, 2-1, begins a six-game, eight-day home-stand on Tuesday, Apr. 1, when they host UMBC at 3:00 p.m.
- GW -
