Baseball Recap: Flyers Drop Series 1-2 To Colonials In Tough Blowout

Roberto De La Rosa-Finch
Online Editor

“It’s just not a good day,” coach Jayson King said Sunday at Woerner Field. “We didn’t do anything well today.”

George Washington (15-12, 5-1 A-10) continued their offensive prowess from their last game against Dayton to defeat the Flyers, 17-2, Easter afternoon.

Dayton (7-15) has yet to win a series and is 1-2 in conference play. The Flyers now have a home record of 4-3 on the season and are 3-7 in their last 10 games.

“Really  — from my end  — just disappointing,” King said. “I just expect so much more than what we got today.”
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Close But Worrisome

The game was relatively close thru three innings. The Flyers struck late in the first with an unconventional suicide squeeze by outfielder junior Connor Echols to bring junior infielder Pat Meehan home. Then George Washington answered back with a single, a double and a RBI groundout.

But after this, the Flyers went cold offensively. Batters attacked on Colonials’ starter Nathan Woods’ early pitches but were fishing for them.

“A pitcher like that  — which we consider to have average stuff  — there’s no need to be in a hurry,” coach Jayson King said.

“You can kind of wait until you get a good one. But some of these guys may not feel that way themselves.”

Consistently out in front and overly aggressive, Dayton swung at bad pitches and left with quick at bats, primarily in the second and third innings.

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The Fourth Is Strong With This One

Down 2-1, starter Jordan Cox began to show signs of losing his location in the fourth and George Washington jumped right on him. Essentially, if Cox didn’t miss outside with a pitch, the Colonials were making contact.

After walking centerfielder Mark Osis, GW strung together two doubles and a RBI groundout from Nate Fassnacht, Dominic D’Alessandro and Matt Cosentino to extend the lead to 4-1.

Proceeding a groundout, Cox threw seven straight balls resulting in a walk and infielder Isaiah Pasteur in the batter’s box with a hitter’s count. Leaving one over the plate, Pasteur hit a three-run bomb about 410 feet to center field.

A second mound visit would bring Cox out and reliever Peter Rozman in. Although he would find his location later on in the game, his second pitch of the day was taken to the right field corner by Osis  — who was walked to start the inning — for a two RBI double. The inning ended on a groundout to Rozman, and the score 9-1.
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Riding Woods The Rest Of The Way

Dayton continued to swing for errand pitches and produce droughts without hits, making Woods’ job much easier. He pitched through eight, allowed seven hits, one earned run and sat down five and had several 1-2-3 innings.

“Their guy just threw a ton of strikes,” King said. “He did what we need to do. He worked ahead in the count. Threw a lot of strikes. Changed speeds. Kept the ball down.”

While the Flyers could only muster up two hits after the fourth inning, the Colonials gave Woods a royal throne of a cushion. From the fourth on, George Washington scored eight answered runs coming in every inning except the fifth.

What’s next?

King wasn’t pleased with the pitching effort that was evident Sunday but has plagued Dayton all season.

Before entering the series, Dayton was last in the Atlantic 10 in ERA (6.74), 10th in hits allowed (221) and 12th in both runs allowed (157) and strikeouts (136).

“We won one game but, in general, the pitchers  — they didn’t do a good job this weekend,” King said.

“We found a way to hit our way to a win but if we’re going to be able to win a series, we’re going to need the pitching to be a lot better. We have a lot of work to do in that aspect.”

“When the pitching is as bad as it was today and you get a lot of bad starts like we’ve been getting, it has an effect on the entire team.”

Dayton continues their home stretch Tuesday and hosts Fort Wayne (6-17) at 3 p.m. The Flyers take a short break in A-10 play before heading off to Richmond, Virginia, to face VCU for a three-game series Friday.

Photo Taken By Steven Miller/Sports Editor