Final Stats

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Ryan Weisenberg (Parkland, Fla./San Ramon Valley) and Joseph Bialkowski (Raleigh, N.C./Needham B. Broughton) both homered and the Georgetown University baseball team scored a season high in runs before holding off a late rally to defeat No. 15 Florida Atlantic University (FAU), 13-11, on Friday night at FAU Baseball Stadium. GU improved to 4-4 on the season, while FAU fell to 7-1.

Bialkowski finished 2-for-3 and was on base five times with three walks. He drove in three and scored three times. Jake Kuzbel (Ashburn, Va./Stone Ridge) had three hits and four RBI, while Weisenberg and Jake Bernstein (Frederick, Md./St. John's College HS) each had two hits and two RBI. Eight members of the starting lineup had base hits while five different Hoyas had multi-hit efforts and four scored at least two runs.

Matt Smith (Cranberry Twp., Pa./Seneca Valley) started and went the first five innings, giving up three runs on five hits while striking out four. Jimmy Swad (Washington, D.C./St. Albans) pitched 3.1 innings in relief, striking out one. David Ellingson (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands College Park) pitched the final 0.2 innings, with two strikeouts, for his third save.

Georgetown struck first in the top of the second inning, scoring four times. Bialkowski led off with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. He was still there with two outs when Bernstein hit a single into left field for an RBI. After Bernstein advanced to second on a wild pitch, Eric Webber (Stockton, Calif./Saint Mary's) pushed him across the plate with a line-drive single into center. Weisenberg then launched his first career home run, and the first of the season for the Hoyas, well over the left field fence for a two-run shot to give GU a 4-0 lead.

The Hoyas added single runs in the third and fourth innings to extend the lead to 6-0. In the third, Bernstein drove in Bialkowski, who had walked, with his second RBI single of the game. Michael DeRenzi (Mendham, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) singled with two outs in the fourth and came around from first to score on a double by Kuzbel.

FAU cut the lead in half with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.

GU answered right back with a six-run top of the fifth. Everything started with two outs as Webber and Weisenberg hit consecutive singles on back-to-back pitches. Austin Shirley (Strafford, Pa./Conestoga) walked to load the bases before DeRenzi reached on an error that allowed Webber to score from third. Kuzbel followed with a bloop, two-run single into left field, scoring both Weisenberg and Shirley. After a pitching change, Bialkowski crushed his first career home run well over the right field wall, bringing Georgetown's lead to 12-3.

The Hoyas tacked on another run in the ninth on a Kuzbel RBI single on an 0-2 pitch, scoring Weisenberg who had walked to lead off the inning.

Swad shut down FAU for three innings and GU held a 13-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. The Owls, however, scored eight runs off of three relievers in the ninth. Ellingson came in and got two strikeouts to end the game with the tying run on second base.

The two teams will resume their series on Saturday at 4 p.m. Simon Mathews (West Haven, Conn./Hopkins School/Temple) will take the mound for the Hoyas. Live stats will be available at www.guhoyas.com.

Notes
Webber's RBI single in the second inning was his first hit of the season, ending a 0-for-23 slump to start 2016 ... Friday was the second time in the past three games that Bialkowski has drawn three walk. He has walked a total of eight times this season, all in the past four games.