WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Georgetown University baseball team dropped its season opener 11-3 to the University of Illinois on Friday afternoon. The game was played at Wake Forest's David F. Couch Ballpark. With the loss, the Hoyas fall to 0-1 on the season, while Illinois moves to 1-0.
 
Jeremiah Burke (Delmar, N.Y. / Bethlehem Central / La Salle Institute) started on the mound for GU and went 5.0 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out two. Angelo Tonas (Hillsborough, Calif. / Sacred Heart Prep) struck out the only batter he faced in his collegiate debut. Noah Clark (Dallas, Texas / Trinity Christian Academy) fired a scoreless inning in his first appearance in two years.
 
Ryan P. Davis (Oak Hill, Va. / Oakton) led the Georgetown offense reaching base three times on a hit by pitch, double and single. Eddie McCabe (Norwalk, Conn. / Norwalk) had a pair of hits, while Kai Nelson (New York, N.Y. / Fieldston) and James Gabor (Wyndmoor, Pa. / William Penn Charter School) were each on base twice with a hit and a walk. John Simourian (Andover, Mass. / Phillips Andover) drove in a pair of runs.
 
Trailing 1-0, the Hoyas tied the game in the bottom of the second inning with a single run. Davis led off the inning with a hit by pitch and went to third on a double by Nelson. Two batters later, Simourian drove in Davis with an RBI ground out.
 
The Fighting Illini retook the lead in the top of the fourth, but GU had an immediate answer in the bottom half of the inning. Nelson and Ryan Weisenberg (Parkland, Fla. / San Ramon Valley [Calif.]) led off with a walk and single, respectively, and both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Gabor. Simourian delivered his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Nelson to knot the score back up.
 
Illinois took a 4-2 lead with a single and home run in the top of the fifth, but again the Hoyas had an answer. Alex Gamache (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest Academy) delivered a one-out pinch-hit single, went to third on a double by Davis and scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 4-3.
 
The Illini scored two runs, one unearned, in the sixth inning and two more on a pair of wild pitches in the seventh off of Jack Cushing (Flower Mound, Texas / Marcus High School) to push their advantage to 8-3. They further extended the lead with three runs off of Jacob Grzebinski (Bellaire, Texas / Emery Weiner) in the ninth inning, providing the final score of 11-3.
 
The Hoyas will continue their opening weekend with another neutral-site game against Sacred Heart on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for noon and live stats will be available at GUHoyas.com. Junior Nick Morreale (Lake Elmo, Minn. / St. Thomas Academy / IMG Academy) will take the mound for the Blue & Gray.
 
Notes – Weisenberg's fifth-inning single was the 100th hit of his career.