The Hoya baseball team came out of the gates swinging in a three-game home series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this past weekend to start conference play.
Georgetown (12-14, 1-2 BE) took the first game of the series-opening doubleheader at Shirley Povich Field by a score of 8-3.
“The first game was great. It felt great,” Head Coach Pete Wilk said of the important win. “We played clean, crisp, really good baseball in that first game, and that’s what I’m happiest about.”
Notre Dame (14-8, 2-1BE) got on the scoreboard first against Hoya senior starter Warren Sizemore in the top of the first inning. An RBI groundout by junior catcher Sean Gaston and an RBI double by senior leftfielder Matt Bransfield gave the Irish an early 2-0 lead.
The Hoya batsmen answered right away in their half of the inning with two runs RBI by sophomore third baseman Matthew Bouchard and senior first baseman Ryan Craft. Georgetown added two more runs in the third to take a 4-2 lead.
After the first inning, Sizemore began to get comfortable on the mound. Notre Dame would only score once more, in the fourth inning. Sizemore gave up three earned runs and four hits in eight innings of work to improve to 2-1 on the season.
“Warren located very well,” Wilk said of his starter’s performance. “He was very aggressive.”
Georgetown broke the game wide open in the seventh inning. Sending 10 batters to the plate, the Hoyas scored four runs with six singles.
See “Hoyas unlucky” p. 14
Craft had another RBI single in the inning and scored. He had two runs and two RBI in the contest, and his four hits in the game were his highest output all season.
“It’s nice to see him back. We’ve been waiting on that,” Wilk commented. “He’s swinging the bat well now.”
In the top of the ninth, sophomore right-hander Daniel Kennedy came in to relieve Sizemore. Kennedy retired all three Irish batters he faced to end the ballgame, giving the Hoyas the 8-3 win in their first conference game.
Notre Dame came back and took the series by winning the next two contests. The Irish won the second game of the Saturday doubleheader 12-2 with dominating performances from their offense and junior starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who is also a star wide receiver for the Notre Dame football team. In the series-deciding game on Sunday, the Fighting Irish prevailed 6-3. Georgetown rebounded from this series with an 11-2 win at Mt. St. Mary’s (9-10) on Tuesday.
The Hoyas will now go on the road for a three-game series at St. John’s (15-7, 3-0 BE) with the first game being played tomorrow.
