RICHMOND, Va. – The William & Mary baseball team used an explosive second inning to grab a 7-3 victory at VCU on Tuesday night. The Tribe (14-4) had seven batters knock at least one base hit to upend the Rams (14-6).
In the top of the second, the Tribe manufactured a six-run blitz to jump out to a big lead. A pair of one-out walks, set up sophomore
David Hogarth for an RBI single to center field. A walk later, freshman
Matt Thomas sent a two-RBI single up the middle. A pair of two-out doubles from seniors
Hunter Smith and
Zach Pearson pushed across three more runs.
After VCU scored its first run, the Tribe quickly took it back in the top of the fourth. With two outs, freshman
Hunter Hart slapped a single up the middle. Smith then crushed his second double to left center to plate Hart and give W&M a 7-1 lead.
VCU scored a pair of unearned runs in the fifth inning, but was held scoreless by the W&M bullpen the rest of the way.
Sophomore
Randy Prosperi (3-0) earned the win as he logged two innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts. Jack Alkire (2-1) was dealt the loss after conceding six runs on five hits in three innings.
Tribe Standouts
Smith continued to deliver offensively after finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Sophomore
Matt McDermott and Hogarth produced multiple hits as well. McDermott doubled and ran out a bunt single, while Hogarth went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Thomas had a hit and drove in a pair of runs. Pearson smashed an RBI double to give W&M four extra-base hits in total.
Freshman
Zach Tsakounis fanned four batters and allowed only one run and four hits across three innings. Juniors
Jamie Sara and
Chris Farrell tossed a scoreless inning each.
Notes
The Tribe engineered its second six-run inning of the season – the first occurred at Norfolk State (3/5) … W&M tallied 10-plus hits for the sixth time … The Tribe improved the 6-1 on the road .. Tsakounis made the third mid-week start of his young career … Smith registered his second multi-hit, multi-RBI effort in the last three games … McDermott tallied his fifth multi-hit game of the season ... Hart expanded his on-base streak to nine in a row … Hogarth recorded a season-high in hits (2) … Rookie
Jack Cone made his first career appearance on the hill.
Up Next
The Tribe opens CAA play with a home series against Northeastern this weekend. The three-game-set opens on Friday, March 22 at 6 pm, resumes on Saturday, March 23 at 4 pm, and wraps up on Sunday, March 24 at 1 pm.
