Head Coach Pete Wilk earns his first victory at Georgetown
GREENVILLE, N.C. (February 6, 2000) -- Georgetown's baseball team split a doubleheader against Duke on February 5 at East Carolina's Harrington Field in the season opener for both teams. Head Coach Pete Wilk begins his first year at the helm of the Hoyas, winning the first game 5-3, but falling, 9-2, in the second. Georgetown's record stands at 1-1.
The Hoyas opened the first game with a first inning RBI single by Eric Sutton (So., Deerfield Beach, Fla./Deerfield Beach) to give GU a 1-0 lead. The Blue Devils (1-1) came right back in the bottom of the second with two scores of their own for a 2-1 Duke lead. In the top of the second, Josh Corman (Sr., Lexington, Ky./Lafayette) singled to left field for the another Hoya RBI, and tied the game at 2-2. Georgetown extended its lead to 4-2 in the fourth behind Jim Vankoski's (Jr., Aston, Pa./Strath Haven (Stanford)) RBI groundout and Brian Cassese's (Jr., Scarsdale, N.Y./Eastchester) score off a wild pitch. The Blue Devils cut into the Hoya lead with an RBI in the bottom of the fifth, but GU added an insurance run in the seventh off Marc Carlini's (Jr., Alexandria, Va./Episcopal) RBI single to left field for the final 5-3 victory.
Pitcher Randy Erwin (Jr., Miami, Fla./Southwest Miami) earned his first win of the season after going for six strong innings. He allowed six hits and three runs while striking out five. Relievers P.J. Martinez (So., Washington, D.C./Landon School) and Tony Pina (So., Middleboro, Mass./Middleboro) pitched the final three innings limiting the Blue Devils to one hit. Pina notched his first save off the season after striking out all five batters he faced. Duke's Patrick Hannaway was credited with the loss.
Georgetown committed eight errors in the second game of the doubleheader en route to a 9-2 loss. Duke's Ryan Caradonna held GU scoreless over 5-1/3 innings allowing four hits and one run while striking out three of the 21 batters he faced. The Hoyas got on the board in the fourth inning when Sutton picked up his second RBI of the afternoon off a ground out sacrifice bunt to first base making the score 4-1. But, Duke picked up two runs in the bottom of the fourth and three more in fifth to take a 9-1 lead heading into the seventh. Freshman Matt Carullo (Oakton, Pa./Paul VI) earned the first RBI of his collegiate career when he singled to the shortstop in the top of the seventh. But, that was all the Hoyas could muster resulting in the defeat.
Matt Arizin (Jr., Philadelphia, Pa./Penn Charter) picked up the loss for GU, while Caradonna registered the win for the Blue Devils.
The Hoyas are in action again on Tuesday, February 15, for a 3:00 p.m. tilt at William & Mary.
