Wilmington, N.C.
- The William and Mary Tribe baseball team fell on the road to the UNCW
Seahawks, 7-4. With the loss, the
Tribe's record drops to 18-18 on the season overall and to 9-7 in CAA
play. Wilmington improves to 19-14 on
the year and to 8-5 in conference action.
Junior Tadd Bower
hit a two-run home run, while sophomore
Ryan Williams
had a solo blast to lead the College's offense in the loss. Senior Derrick Osteen
also continued his hot
hitting of late, going 2-for-4 with a RBI and a walk, while sophomore Ryan
Brown also had a pair of hits.
On the mound, sophomore Matt Wainman
pitched well out of the
bullpen for the College. Wainman threw
two shutout innings, surrendering just one hit while striking out four and
walking one.
On a beautiful night in Wilmington, the Seahawks took the
early lead, scoring three runs in the top of the first, all coming with two
outs in the inning. The highlight of the
frame was a two-run single off the bat of Thomas Pope.
Not able to get any offense going in the first three
innings, the Tribe would finally break through in the top of the fourth. With one down, senior Jonathan Slattery
reached base after getting hit by a pitch.
Up to the plate stepped Bower, who after fouling off numerous pitches,
blasted a 2-2 offering deep over the fence in right-center field for his third
home run of the season. Bower's two-run
shot closed the UNCW lead to 3-2 after three and a half innings.
In the fifth and the sixth innings, the Seahawks added to
its lead over the College with more two-out hitting. UNCW scored one run in the fifth before
scoring three more in the bottom of the sixth.
After six complete, Wilmington led the College, 7-2.
In the top of the seventh, the Tribe was able to trim the
lead, but not as much as it would have liked to. With one out, the bases were loaded for
Osteen after a single from junior Chris Forsten
, a HBP to Brown, and a walk to
freshman Ryan Lindemuth
. Osteen had a
great at-bat for the Tribe, drawing a walk to score Forsten from third. Freshman Devin White
came in to pinch hit,
but went down swinging to leave them loaded for Slattery. After fouling off numerous offerings to make
the count 3-2, Slattery would also go down swinging, leaving three runners on
base. After six and a half, the Tribe
trailed the Seahawks, 7-3.
In the top of the eighth, the College cut another run off
the Seahawk lead. With one down,
Williams crushed a 1-0 offering an estimated 405 feet over the fence in center field
for his fourth homer of the season.
Williams' solo shot cut the UNCW lead to 7-4 headed to the bottom of the
eighth.
Unable to get a rally going in the top of the ninth, the
Tribe dropped game one of the three-game series to the UNCW Seahawks, 7-4. For the game, UNCW scored all seven of its
runs with two outs and had seven of its 14 hits with two away.
With inclement weather expected in the Wilmington area on
Saturday afternoon, the William and Mary Tribe's scheduled start time for
Saturday's game has been moved up from 4 p.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday's game remains scheduled for a 2 p.m.
first pitch.
