MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees throughout the evening, George Washington head coach Mike Davis wondered how the Patriots would generate enough offense to give themselves a legitimate chance against Class AAA No. 2 Bridgeport.
As the game progressed, the Patriots showed they were capable of doing just that, though they didn’t need an abundance of support for left-hander Joe Burton on this particular Friday night.
Burton threw all seven innings, held the Indians scoreless for the first five and fired a six-hitter with five strikeouts to lead the way for GW in a 10-2 victory at Dale Miller Field in a Mon County Classic matchup.
“This is more than we would’ve hoped for. When we’re looking at the rotation, like any coach you’re thinking about who comes in next and he never allowed us to get to that point,” GW head coach Mike Davis said. “He had a low pitch count to get the complete game, but that’s everything we could’ve asked for from a sophomore against a big-time opponent.”
GWHS (8-4) had runners at the corners with no outs against Tribe (6-2) starting pitcher Justin Duvall in the home half of the second inning, but an out at the plate combined with two strikeouts prevented the Patriots from gaining an early lead.
If that bothered Burton, he sure didn’t show any sign of it. He retired Bridgeport in order in the third, including the top two hitters in the lineup for the final two outs.
“We flew out way too much,” Indians’ head coach Robert Shields said of his team’s 12 outs in the air. “They had some good, timely hits, but this wasn’t our night. We’re attacking the ball really well, but we were underneath it too much. That was the difference between our first game [a 9-2 win over Wheeling Park] and this game. We were underneath everything. That’s the easiest out in baseball.”
The Indians then hurt their cause in the third, committing three errors over a short stretch, including two on one play that saw GW leadoff batter Jon Fala steal second base, with the throw getting away and into centerfield. Fala took off for third base, and the throw to the hot corner sailed into the BHS dugout, allowing Fala to come home with the first run.
“We did a good job of applying a lot of pressure throughout the game,” Davis said.
Burton worked around Owen Sondericker’s two-out single in the fourth to keep GW in front, and when he returned to the mound in the fifth, the Patriots had seized control of the matchup.
GW’s first three batters reached in the fourth, including Luke Gordon, who led off with a double and scored on a wild pitch. Joel Nelson belted a run-scoring double that upped the lead to 3-0 and marked the end of Duvall’s outing.
Cole Ellis’ sacrifice fly was followed by Hunter Stewart’s run-scoring double, and the Patriots made it 6-0 later that inning when Chuck Kelley drove in Stewart with a single.
The Patriots continued to excel offensively in the fifth and built a nine-run lead on the strength of Stewart’s ground-rule double that drove in a run, while Fala’s sacrifice fly and Corbin Dixon’s double provided more insurance.
“Hats off to George Washington,” Shields said. “They played well and hit the ball hard. We need to start playing more and getting into a groove.”
The first three Bridgeport batters in the sixth reached, leading to a Jack Gould sacrifice fly and a second run on Jacob Stavrakis’ groundout.
Slade Barton’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly in the sixth gave GW its 10th run, and Burton finished off the complete game in strong fashion by retiring the Tribe in order in the seventh.
“They’re going to put the ball in play on him, so we have to play strong defense behind Joe,” Davis said. “Our M.O. the last few years is solid defense and we were able to do show that again tonight.”
Burton walked three batters during the sixth, but did not issue a base-on-balls otherwise.
Six of the Patriots’ 10 hits were doubles, including two from both Gordon and Stewart.
Duvall took the loss after allowing four runs on four hits in three-plus innings.
“We were able to make them pay for balls that were up over the plate and we found some holes,” Davis said. “It was a complete game and I’m super proud of our guys. They’re going to apply pressure. They scored a couple runs, but we didn’t let that affect us.”