WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William & Mary baseball will take to the road once again for the second of two midweek meetings with Norfolk State. The Tribe last saw the Spartans in their first midweek game at home, earning a lopsided 13-2, run-rule victory.
W&M and Norfolk State are scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on Wednesday, March 20 at Marty L. Miller field.
Last Time Out
The Tribe swept their second weekend series of the year, outscoring Quinnipiac by an impressive 44-16 runs (13-7, 15-3, 16-6) last weekend. Extending its win streak to four games with the sweep, W&M also posted a lopsided midweek victory at Longwood last Wednesday, besting the Lancers in seven innings by a score of 20-6.
The Tribe's lone loss of the week came to No. 15 Virginia on the road. Despite jumping to a 2-0 lead early in the contest, the top-25 team came back to take the game, 6-2.
After a 4-1 week, the Green & Gold sit at 14-6 on the season through 20 games.
Rookie of the Week
Josiah Seguin earned the CAA Rookie of the Week title after a breakout week at the plate. The freshman entered the week in search of his first hit, racking up six of them to tie for second-most on the team during the week. With half of his hits for extra bases, his 13 total bases tied for the team lead as he posted a .813 slugging percentage.
Barreling a 450-foot home run in the series opener against Quinnipiac, Seguin had homers in back-to-back contests, while adding another multi-hit game to his weekly resume.
In addition to his six hits on the week, Seguin drew three walks and was hit by a pitch, earning a .500 on base percentage to reach base in all four of his starts.
A Breakout Week
In addition to Seguin,
Christian Rush and
Witt Scafidi each saw to their first multi-hit game.
Rush made a statement in the Tribe's win at Longwood, going off in a 3-5, two home run performance. His first hit in Green & Gold was a double, which he followed with a grand slam, a solo shot and a walk, notching 6 RBI in the contest.
Scafidi also went 3-5 last week, recording a hit in his second-straight game to extend his on-base streak to six contests. He also tallied a walk, an RBI and a run in Saturday's victory over Quinnipiac.
League Leaders
The Tribe leads the CAA in eight statistics, ranking in the top 25 nationally in five of them.
Offensively, W&M paces the conference with 146 walks (No. 7 in the nation), 46 hit by pitch (No. 9), a .444 on base percentage (No. 14), a .295 batting average and 200 hits. The Tribe trails only Campbell in runs scored with 183 to the Camels' 184.
On the mound, the Tribe has the lead in the CAA with 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings (No. 13 nationally), 7.82 hits allowed per nine innings (No. 25) and 2.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Individually,
Ben Parker's 34 runs is No. 4 in the nation, tying Campbell's Grant Knipp for the lead in the CAA and trailing by one run to three players tied with the national lead.
Joe Delossantos has the most walks (23), which ranks eighth nationally, and 1.15 walks per game. Also in the NCAA's top ten is
Jerry Barnes III's 10 hit by pitch.
Zack Potts paces the CAA with a 1.27 ERA, ranking 14
th in the NCAA.
Nate Knowles' 15.26 strikeouts per nine innings comes in at No. 12 nationally.
Offensive Streaks
In a continuously impressive feat, the outfielder duo of
Joe Delossantos and
Ben Parker have each reached base in all 20 of the Tribe's games.
Parker reached base with three walks on Sunday against Quinnipiac but didn't tally a hit for the first time in 13 games. His team-high streak ended four games shy of tying the longest hitting streak from last season, 17 games by none other than his leftfielder counterpart.
The Matchup
The Spartans are 7-12 on the season after falling to UMass 5-1 at home on Tuesday afternoon.
The Tribe is facing the Spartans for the second time in 2024. The first meeting was at Plumeri Park on Tuesday, Feb. 27 when the Tribe took a commanding 13-2 victory in just seven innings, marking one of the Tribe's two two-hitters on the season.
In the all-time series, the Tribe lead 36-12, winning all five of the most recent meetings with double-digit runs. W&M is 7-3 in the last 10 and 10-6 on the road against Norfolk State.
463 total runs have crossed for the Tribe in the series, which began on April 21, 1979, and they average 9.65 runs per game.
Up Next
Following Wednesday's contest, the Tribe returns to Plumeri Park to begin their CAA slate at home with Stony Brook. In its final of six-straight home weekends to open the season, W&M will face off against the Seawolves in a three-game weekend series beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 22.
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