Feb. 28, 2014
Final Stats
GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Georgetown baseball team was held to just five singles and one unearned run, falling 7-1 to UNCG on Friday evening in the first game of a three-game series.
Georgetown's starting pitcher, Matt Smith (Cranberry Twp, Pa./Seneca Valley), went four innings giving up five earned runs on nine hits. Both Nick Collins (Carthage, N.C./Union Pines) and Steve Anderson (Albany, N.Y./Northfield Mt. Hermon Prep (Mass.)/Guilderland) had two singles and Eric Webber (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's) reached base twice with a walk and a hit by pitch. Matt Hollenbeck (Horsham, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) pitched two scoreless innings in relief and Nick Leonard (Washington, D.C./Maret) also pitched two innings, giving up two unearned runs.
UNCG's starting pitcher, Ryan Clark, went eight innings, giving up just one unearned run while striking out five and walking one.
Smith appeared to be on track early, needing just nine pitches (seven strikes) to get through the first inning and 21 pitches to get through two innings.
Meanwhile, despite some hard hit ball, the Georgetown (3-4) offense was shut down the first trip through the order. Collins and Christian Venditti (Newtonville, Mass./St. Sebastian's School) hit balls right on the screws, but right at the left fielder, and Patrick Camporini (Safety Harbor, Fla./Clearwater Central Catholic) lined out sharply to the first baseman.
UNCG (3-5) got on the board first in the bottom of the third inning with three consecutive one-out singles and a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead.
The Spartans batted around in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs on five hits. A leadoff bunt single, triple and single by the first three batters extended the lead to 3-0. Two more singles and a hit batter led to two more runs and chased Smith after four innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, a well-executed hit and run gave UNCG runners on first and third with one out. Hollenbeck helped out his own cause by perfectly playing a suicide squeeze attempt and throwing the runner out at home. After an infield single, that Ryan Busch (Falcon Heights, Minn./Roseville Area) knocked down to save a run, second baseman Jake Kuzbel (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) made a great charging play on a slow chopper to end the inning and strand three runners.
Busch led off the top of the sixth with bunt single and, with one out, Webber walked. Collins lined out to deep center, allowing Busch to advance to third. AC Carter (Winter Park, Fla./Orangewood Christian) then hit a grounder down the third base line, but the throw from the third baseman short-hopped the first baseman, allowing Busch to score. With Webber on third and Carter on second, Anderson hit a hard fly ball to right, but the UNCG right fielder made a nice running catch on the warning track.
UNCG tacked on another two runs on a two-out throwing error by Busch. The error came a play after Busch, with the infield drawn in, made a nice play on a grounder to hold the runners at second and third.
The two teams resume their three-game series on Saturday with a 2 p.m. start. Will Brown (Chesterfield, Va./Matoaca) is scheduled to be on the mound for the Hoyas.
