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 Jeff Fertitta smacked a grand slam against UMBC for his second home run of the year. The junior now leads GW with 15 RBI. |
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Baseball Bashes UMBC 11-1 Featuring Fertitta Grand Slam Home Run
March 12, 2003
ARLINGTON, VA - GW Baseball beat UMBC at Barcroft Park today, 11-1. The Colonials' tri-captain Jeff Fertitta led the entourage with a grand slam home run in the bottom of the third inning to help lift GW to a 9-4 start this season. Freshman Tom Shanley continues to turn heads (especially those of opposing pitchers) hitting safely for a stellar 13th straight time. Shanley was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week, for the second time this year, on Tuesday. As the starting shortstop, he now leads the team with a .417 batting average.
Fellow freshman pitcher Josh Wilkie won his first GW start giving up only one run on eight hits over six innings while striking out six. He now has 15 ringers on the year and has the second lowest ERA on the team at the 2.40 mark. The Colonials continue to exhibit strong pitching giving up only one hit and striking out four in three innings of committee relief work. Dennis Gramolini, Dan Pfau and David Cutler all pitched an inning to shut down UMBC down the stretch. Cutler, who moved up from the club team for his senior year, has impressed striking out seven of the 12 batters he has faced. Opponents are hitting only .167 against him in his 3.1 innings of relief work this year. Pfau has the second highest strike out mark this season having rung up 16 over 12.1 innings.
The Retrievers' pitcher Joe Wilson (0-1) played fetch with his catcher as he issued three consecutive walks to load the bases in the third inning. Shanley slapped a single to the left side which scored the first for GW. Shanley now has 11 RBI and 11 runs on the year. With the bases still loaded for Fertitta, the Colonials captain rocked a shot to right center field which cleared the bases and lifted his RBI total to a team-leading 15.
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UMBC got one run back in the top of the fourth after Kosmicky scored on Parker's double after doubling himself. But GW would give up no more runs in the contest and answered with a run in the bottom of four before blowing up in the fifth. The Colonials who have scored in bunches all season put together their second five-run inning in the fifth. After a string of singles, Tony Dokoupil cleared the bases with a round tripper, his first of the season. Dokoupil finished with four RBI on the day hitting from the leadoff spot. He has steadily improved his average and is now up to a healthy .300. With a steal earlier in the game, he moved into the 10th spot on GW's all-time steals list with 41 in his four-year career.
The Colonials have scored in double digits their last four games and have won five straight since returning from a three-game series against No. 1 Georgia Tech who has yet to lose this season (14-0). The Colonials travel to Delaware on Thursday for a 2:30 pm game before returning home for weekend action against Hartford. The weekend series, played at Barcroft Park, will feature a double header starting at noon on Saturday followed by a noon-time game on Sunday.
