WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William & Mary baseball (25-11, 8-4 CAA) enters the 10
th week of play coming off a 3-1 week which saw a program-record victory at No. 6 Duke and the team's fourth-straight CAA series win. No. 9 East Carolina (27-8, 8-4 AAC) travels to Williamsburg, Va., for the first time since the Tribe's final home-weekend series as CAA opponents in April 2000.
The Tribe Sports Network will air on FloBaseball for all CAA home games. The Tribe's complete FloBaseball schedule is available
here. Coverage begins approximately 10 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch with insights from Head Coach
Mike McRae and his staff.
Single-game tickets can be purchased at
TribeAthletics.com.
On Sundays, following W&M games at Plumeri Park, kids can run the bases! To sign up your child to run the bases,
click here.
Last Time Out
The Tribe completed their eighth-straight weekend series victory with a pair of wins on Saturday and Sunday to come all the way back from a series-opening loss against North Carolina A&T. The Aggies posted a 8-4 victory on Friday, just the second time the Tribe have lost in a series opener and the first since opening weekend, before W&M bounced back with 7-4 and 10-5 victories of its own to close out the weekend.
Pitcher of the Week(s)
Nate Knowles was tabbed CAA Pitcher of the Week for the second time this year following the Tribe's 3-1 week. He was credited with a pair of those wins, making two impressive starts. He went 4.0 innings at No. 6 Duke and allowed only one run and a pair of hits before building on that performance Sunday with 4.0 no-hit innings in the series-clinching victory against NC A&T. Knowles tallies 10 strikeouts over the week and held opponents to a 0.77 batting average.
National Numbers
The Tribe remains in the top 25 in the country in seven statistics, reaching as high as No. 6 in walks, drawing 232 as a team.
Nate Goranson's 1.1 walks per game is No. 11 individually, while he,
Ben Parker and
Joe Delossantos all have over 30 walks this season. Offensively, W&M also ranks 17
th with 73 team HBPs, a category led by sophomore
Jerry Barnes III's 13.
On the mound, Knowles has been steadfast, ranking sixth in the country in ERA, boasting a 1.52 mark through 47.1 innings.
The pitching staff is 14
th in both ERA (3.82) and hits allowed per nine innings (7.69). The Tribe also ranks at No. 17 with a 1.30 WHIP, No. 22 with 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings and No. 24 with a 2.57 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Not a number, but another national note, W&M will enter its third-straight week receiving votes in the NCBWA's top-25 poll, marking the fifth week in which the Tribe have been in the nation's-best conversation.
History Repeats
Following every season with a single ranked win in program history, the next season in which the Tribe have won against a ranked opponent featured more than one ranked victory.
In 2023, the Tribe took down No. 15 Campbell in March at Plumeri Park.
W&M opened last week with the highest-ranked win in program history and the first ranked win on the road since defeating No. 11 North Carolina in 2010, defeating No. 6 Duke in Durham, N.C., 4-2. The Tribe have the opportunity to continue the pattern with a victory Tuesday.
Streak Watch
Outfielder Delossantos has produced the longest on-base streak on the Tribe, reaching in all 35 of his appearances, and is just a game shy of the team's longest hitting streak of the season with an active 12-game streak heading into Tuesday's contest. Catcher
Witt Scafidi also has a double-digit on-base streak, tallying 10 in a row.
Lucas Carmichael and
Henry Jackson have each recorded hits in their last five games, Jackson's extending his season-long streak. The pair each recorded a hit in every game against NC A&T as the Tribe powered to the series win.
Milestone Meter
Delossantos moved into sixth all-time in W&M history in stolen bases with 52. He trails Rich Schwartzman's fifth-place mark by just one. Smashing his 27
th home run of his career on Sunday, the fifth year took sole possession of No. 10 all-time in program history.
Carter Lovasz earned his third save of the year to move into second in W&M history with 15 career saves. The righty sits just three saves behind the program-record 18, a career mark achieved by Joseph Gaouette in 2013-16.
Goranson has thrown out 12 runners in 2024, tying for 7
th in program history in the category with 28.
With 10 strikeouts last week, Knowles brought his season tally to 68, just two shy of his career-best 70 from 2023 in 18.1 fewer innings of work.
The Series
The Pirates lead the all-time series 79-19, while the Tribe trails 8-29 in at home.
In the last 10 games, the Tribe have come out on top in two, and three games have been decided by just one run over that time.
Playing all but one of the previous 11 contests in Greenville, N.C., the outlier was a matchup in the 2016 Charlottesville Regional. Prior to that, the teams haven't faced off in the Commonwealth of Virginia since April 2, 2000.
Up Next
The Tribe will return to the road for its fifth weekend of CAA play, heading to Charleston, S.C. to take on the Cougars on Friday-Sunday, April 19-21. Charleston sits just one spot above the Tribe in the conference standings with a 9-3 record, tying that of Northeastern.
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