Williamsburg, Va.
- The William and Mary Tribe baseball team won its fifth-straight game on
Wednesday night, beating the Norfolk State Spartans, 6-5, at Marty L. Miller
Baseball Field. With the victory, the
College improves its record to 11-13 on the season, while Norfolk State falls
to 7-14 on the year.
Sophomore Ryan Williams
drove in three runs for the College,
while senior Jonathan Slattery
went 3-for-5 with a RBI and a run scored to lead
the Tribe's offense on Wednesday afternoon.
Junior Buster Gean
also drove in a run and scored a pair, while freshman
Devin White
also tallied a RBI.
On the mound, sophomore Brett Goodloe
was solid for the
Tribe, pitching 5.2 innings and allowing just two earned runs. Goodloe struck out five batters and walked
only one in improving his record to 3-0 on the season. Out of the bullpen,
sophomore John Farrell
pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out two, while
classmate Brett Koehler
earned his fourth save of the year.
In the top of the first, the College jumped out to an early
1-0 lead over the host Spartans. With
one down, Gean was hit by a pitch to get on for Slattery, who quickly doubled
down the left-field line to put runners on second and third. Swinging at the first pitch, Williams hit a
fly ball out to right field, deep enough to score Gean on the sacrifice fly,
giving the Tribe a 1-0 advantage.
The Tribe added to its lead in the top of the third,
extending its advantage to 3-0 over Norfolk State. After a leadoff single from sophomore Ryan
Brown, senior Derrick Osteen
reached base on a throwing error by the NSU third
baseman, putting Brown and Osteen on third and second for Gean. With the Spartan infield playing in, Gean
grounded sharply up the middle, only to see the NSU second baseman make a
diving stop. Despite losing out on hit,
Gean's groundout scored Brown for third easily.
Next up was Slattery, who plated Osteen with a line-drive single to
right-center field, making the Tribe lead 3-0 over Norfolk State.
The College continued to play add-on in the top of the fourth
inning. With Ryan Lindemuth
on third and
one out, the squeeze play was on for the Tribe. White laid down a great bunt as
Lindemuth darted down the third base line, scoring easily, making the Tribe
lead 4-0 over NSU.
After Norfolk State closed the deficit to 4-2 after six
innings, the Tribe doubled its lead back to four. After back-to-back singles from Gean and
Slattery, Williams blasted a double down the right-field line, scoring both
runners for his second and third RBIs of the day. After six and a half, the College led the
Spartans, 6-2.
Norfolk State refused to give in, however, and scored three
unearned runs off sophomore Derek Lowe
in the seventh inning. Despite the runs, Lowe had a nice collegiate
pitching debut for the Tribe, striking out one in his inning of work.
With the score 6-5 in favor of the Tribe in the bottom of
the ninth, the Spartans were threatening.
After a single and hit by pitch, runners were on first and second for
NSU. After a sacrifice bunt moved the
tying and winning runs in to scoring position, the Spartans had their leading
hitter at the plate. Koehler rose to the
occasion for the Tribe, striking out NSU's John Rasberry for the second
out.
After an intentional walk loaded the bases, John Lynch was
up to bat for the Spartans. After
getting ahead 0-2, Lynch battled back to force the count full, 3-2. Once again Koehler came through for the
College, firing a fastball past Lynch to secure the win for William and Mary,
6-5.
The William and Mary Tribe baseball team will hit the road
this weekend for a pivotal-CAA series at Delaware. The three-game set gets underway on Friday,
March 25, with first pitch scheduled for 3 p.m.
