WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – For the second consecutive game, William & Mary baseball broke a program record en route to a conference victory - this time in front of a very special home crowd.
In Friday's series opener against Towson, the Tribe welcomed Joseph J. Plumeri '66, D.P.S. '11, the namesake of William & Mary baseball's beautiful home stadium, to celebrate the 25
th anniversary of the dedication of Plumeri Park and honor the contributions of the Plumeri family.
W&M (28-21, 11-11 CAA) put on a quarter-century-worthy show on the mound, taking down Towson (13-37, 3-18 CAA), 5-2, breaking a program record and tying another in the process.
The fifth strikeout of the evening marked a program-record milestone, tallying the pitching staff's 476
th of the year to overtake the record of 475 set in 2004. Well eclipsing that mark,
Nate Knowles and
Carter Lovasz combined to tie a season-high 16 strikeouts, bringing the record tally to 487 total during the 2024 campaign.
Knowles recorded a dozen strikeouts, the most in a single game by a W&M pitcher in over 10 years, last achieved by Jason Inghram (15) in April 2013, and became one of just ten pitchers to meet the single-game mark since 1966.
Heading into the weekend, the junior had 85 punchouts, sitting just outside of 16
th-place (86) on the single-season leaderboard. His 12-strikeout performance skyrocketed him to sixth-most in a single season in program history, running up his total to 97 on the year. The mark trails the next-highest by just two – Inghram's 99 in 2013.
Knowles' career-long 6.1 innings of work saw just four hits, two runs, one earned, and a pair of walks. He earned the victory, improving to 7-2.
Tossing the final 2.2 innings of shutout ball, Lovasz earned his team-leading sixth save of the season, bringing his career tally to 18 saves in three years and tying the program-record mark set by Joseph Gaouette in 2013-2016.
The top of the lineup saw to an impressive evening as
Henry Jackson reached base three times hitting in the leadoff spot, tallying a pair of hits, and
Ben Parker found his way on base four times, including a double among his two hits.
Joe Delossantos accounted for three of the team's four RBI on the night, belted a double and drew a pair of walks.
Christian Rush, who hit for the cycle just a game ago, extended his hitting streak to three games.
Also among the spectators, Tribe baseball alumni and former Major League Baseball duo of Chris Ray and Bill Bray were featured on the Tribe Sport Network broadcast. Each earning the title of highest draft pick in program history in their respective years, Ray was a third-round pick in the 2003 MLB Draft and Bray was the program's first first-round selection in 2004 at 13
th overall.
Knowles opened the game with a 1-2-3 inning, striking out a pair to make way for the Tribe offense. His second strikeout of the evening, with the former MLB player in attendance, tied Ray's 87 strikeouts for the 15
th-most in a single season in program history, a sixth-best mark when it was achieved in 2003.
The Tribe got up early in the game, making the most of free passes as Jackson drew a leadoff walk and Parker wore a pitch before Delossantos could lace an RBI double through the left side.
Parker came across to score his astounding 60
th run of the season on an error, giving the Tribe a 2-0 lead after one inning.
A Towson run crossed in the second, bringing the score to a 2-1 Tribe lead due to an error. The Tigers added their final run in the fourth frame as a pair of singles knotted the game at two-all.
The next two Tribe runs would score on Delossantos sacrifice flies, freshman
Josiah Seguin scored on each of them, finding himself on base from a HBP and a walk in the fourth and sixth frames, respectively. Taking back the lead, the Tribe shifted the momentum back in favor of the host team.
Knowles ended his outing with back-to-back perfect innings before he gave way to Lovasz after a single in the seventh.
Lovasz picked off the inherited runner and then retired the next four Tigers in order to take the Tribe into the ninth inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Tribe once again made their plate appearances count as
Lucas Carmichael and Parker drew walks and Delossantos was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Freshman
Anthony Greco wore a 1-2 pitch for an RBI, driving in the Tribe's final run of the game.
Lovasz shut the door on the record-breaking game, finalizing the victory in the 25
th anniversary celebration at Plumeri Park.
On Saturday, as the Tribe look to chinch the CAA series, W&M will honor its four graduating seniors and recognize their accomplishments. The W&M Class of 2024 includes
Lucas Carmichael,
Nate Goranson,
Mark Hindy and
Ethan Snyder.
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