Washington Baseball: Huskies Sweep St. Josephs
The Huskies moved to 9-3 this weekend with a four game sweep at home over Saint Joseph’s. Excellent pitching and timely hitting combined to give the Huskies an undefeated weekend.
The series was delayed when Friday’s game was rained out. They made up for the rain out by holding double headers on both Saturday and Sunday.
On the first game on Saturday, the game only lasted seven innings so that the teams could get both games in and save pitching. The Huskies came through with a win despite a poor offensive showing. The first Husky hit of the game came in the third inning with an Erik Forgione double. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, the freshman shortstop scored on a ground out by Jayce Ray to give Washington their only run of the game. Starting pitcher Aaron West turned in a masterful performance, allowing just one hit, no walks, and no runs in six innings of work. His era moved to 0.53 in 3 starts. He also got his second win of the season. Joshua Fredendall came in to pick up the save by throwing a scoreless final inning to complete the one hit shutout by Husky pitchers.
The second game of the day featured much more offense. Husky pitcher Austin Voth allowed his only run in the third inning, which was quickly recovered by an rbi single by Ray to tie the game. The Huskies took the lead an inning later with two consecutive hits by Joe Meggs and Robert Pehl to start in the inning, followed by an rbi base hit by Branden Berry and rbi double by Jacob Lamb. Pehl and Berry set up another big inning in the sixth with leadoff singles. They scored on rbis from Lamb, Michael Camporeale, and Ty Afenir drove in a run of his own. Starter Austin Voth left the game with a 6-1 lead after delivering six innings and giving up just one run on three hits. He got the win. The Huskies weren’t done yet however. They plated three more in a rally that was again started by Pehl and Berry. Lamb got his third rbi of the day and Mitsui picked up one of his own. Washington’s bullpen threw three scoreless innings to complete a 9-1 victory.
The first game on Saturday, which also was limited to seven innings, was another pitcher’s duel. Again, Washington’s starting pitcher was lights out as George Asmus gave up just one hit and struck out five batters in five innings of work. A throwing error by shortstop Erik Forgione allowed Saint Joseph’s only run to score, and the Huskies found themselves trailing in the third inning. They struck back with a two out rally in the fourth, capped off by a single by Andrew Ely which scored Chase Anselment. The game remained tied until the seventh inning when Jacob Lamb, who reached base on a double, scored on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Chase Anselment. Nick Palewicz, who threw two scoreless innings in relief, picked up the win for the Huskies.
The Huskies got on the board first in the final game of the weekend. In the second, a throwing error by the Saint Joe’s pitcher brought in one run, and a second run scored on a base hit by Joe Meggs. They tacked on three more in the sixth, sparked by a homerun by Anselment and followed by rbis by Caleb Brown and Joe Meggs scoring B.K. Santy and Ty Afenir. Again, Husky starting pitching was superb as Mac Acker got the win after throwing five scoreless innings to earn the victory in his first start of the year. Washington added one more run, and the bullpen finished the shutout to earn the series sweep.
The Husky pitching staff was nothing short of ridiculous this weekend. They allowed just two runs, one of which was unearned. Husky defense only committed one error, although it cost one of the two runs given up in the four game series. It would have been nice to see the offense put together more than one run opening game of the series and two runs in the third game, but it didn’t matter with the way the pitchers performed. The offenses will have to step up production against better opponents however.
Next weekend, the Huskies will take their 9-3 record to the Golden State to take on 22nd ranked Cal Poly. Poly will be the Dawg’s second real test of the season.