Baseball back on track with big victory over Virginia Wesleyan

By LINDSEY AYLOR

University of Mary Washington had a convincing victory over Virginia Wesleyan College on Monday, April 11. Johnathan Truba earned the start for the Eagles giving up five hits, five runs and three walks over the course of four innings. The Eagles committed three errors during the first four innings, but recovered well offensively.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Eagles posted four runs with a single from Thomas Weaver and walks from Mitch Moynihan and James Keller to load the bases. Steven Johnson contributed a two-run single and Kyle Bynum was hit by a pitch to plate another Eagles run. James Sink contributed an RBI bunt single to score the last Eagle run of the inning.

UMW continued the barrage in the second inning tacking on three more runs to increase their lead to 7-1 in the second inning.

Brian Burns was hit by a pitch then stole second, advancing to third on a passed ball. Moynihan walked and both advanced on a wild pitch, then another wild pitch allowed Moynihan to score.

It was in the fourth inning that the Marlins decided to strike back with four runs moving the score to 7-4. However, it took the Eagles until the sixth inning to respond with a single run from a Ramsis Ruiz single followed by a Moynihan single, who reached second on an error and scoring Ruiz. Virginia Wesleyan rallied in the seventh inning to post three more runs, but were quickly overpowered by the Eagles. Bynum singled to score James Sink on a grounder, and David Slupek followed with a solo homerun to right field.

The Eagles continued to bury the Marlins with a couple of insurance runs in the eighth, with another Moynihan walk, followed by a James Keller single and a Bynum walk, Johnston followed with a hard shot to first base which was misplayed to score the first insurance run. Sink knocked in the second run with a sacrifice fly.

Paul McClure pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for the Eagles allowing just one hit to clinch the Eagles’ victory.

“Heading into the tournament, it is important to pick up momentum and keep it. We have the talent on our team; we just need everything to click at once,” McClure said. “If everything clicks then anything can happen in the tournament even though we got off to a slow start in CAC play. We are underdogs, a roll that we are comfortable with and have succeeded with in that past.”

Pitching seems to be steadily improving for the Eagles as well as their hitting, which was proven by David Slupek during Monday’s game.

“We have had a very inconsistent year, but it’s great to still have the chance to make it into the tournament,” said senior David Phillips. “We have the talent, so if we make into the tournament our seeded position doesn’t matter at that point. We’ve got a shot to have a great run.” The Eagles improved to 22-14 on the season and 5-10 in conference play.