By Skye Tulio
Assistant Sports Editor
The baseball team will host Saint Joseph’s (17-23, 7-4) this weekend in a three-game conference series beginning today at 3 p.m.
The Bonnies (17-16, 5-7) swept George Washington last weekend in Virginia and split a doubleheader at Bucknell Tuesday.
“We haven’t been real strong at home so far,” sophomore right-hander Asa Johnson said. “We lost our first two series at home, so it’s definitely something we want to turn around. We definitely want to play well in front of our home crowd, and it’ll be Spring Weekend, so there should be a lot of people here. Hopefully, we can get at least two wins or even get that sweep … that’d be huge for us.”
The Bonnies last faced Saint Joseph’s in 2010, when they hosted the Hawks at Fred Handler Park for a five-game series. Two out of the five games were cancelled due to weather conditions, but the Bonnies took two of the three games played.
In game one of the series against George Washington (17-25, 3-9) Friday, the Bonnies claimed a 3-1 victory against the Colonials in extra innings. A double in the top of the 12th by junior first baseman Austin Ingraham propelled the Brown and White to their first win of the weekend.
With junior Michael Meredith on second base, the Colonials intentionally walked junior Billy Urban to get to Ingraham. The first baseman sent the ball to right field, ending the Bonnies’ five-game Atlantic 10 losing streak.
Bonnies starter Eddie Gray (3-2) pitched a strong nine innings, giving up only one run. The redshirt junior allowed six hits, one walk and struck out seven. Junior Jason Radwan took the mound from second base in the 10th and threw three shutout innings of relief for the Bonnies. Radwan struck out three and allowed one hit.
A leadoff double by the Colonials in the top of the first put them up 1-0, but the Bonnies fought back, scoring on an Urban two-out single.
Sophomore Brian Weightman walked and eventually crossed the plate to tie the score, which would remain the same until the 12th inning. Urban went 2-for-4, increasing his record of reaching base safely to 24 games in a row.
The team moved the originally scheduled Sunday game of the series to a Saturday doubleheader due to forecasted rain.
Game one starter Jordan Crane (3-1) allowed only one run and five hits in eight innings. This marked the fewest hits allowed in the senior’s career when throwing at least eight innings. Crane handed the ball over to redshirt senior Cael Johnson (2-5) in the ninth. Johnson earned the first save of his career after prompting a game-ending double play.
The Bonnies got on the board first, after a double to left-center by senior Nick Brennen. Urban hit a single to bring home the left fielder. The Brown and White added a run in the third inning on a hit to center field by Urban, bringing home Radwan, who reached on a fielder’s choice.
The Colonials’ lone run of the game came in the bottom of the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly to left field after a one-out triple bysenior infielder Matthew Murakami.
The Brown and White offense livened up in the second game of the doubleheader with 11 hits. Senior Ryan Skellie, Meredith, junior Eric Jutca and sophomore Justin Brozick all recorded two hits during the 9-5 victory.
As the Bonnies trailed 2-0 in the top of the third inning, they scored four runs on two hits and a Colonial error. George Washington quickly responded with a pair of hits to tie the score at 4.
Reclaiming the lead in the sixth inning, Jutca led off the inning with a double and scored on an error. The Colonials scored another run in the bottom of the inning on a safety squeeze to tie the game at 5.
Ingraham singled to center field in the top of the ninth to bring home Brennen with the game-winner to give the Bonnies a 6-5 lead.
After a double by Urban, Jutca brought Urban home with a bunt single to end the game’s scoring at 9-5. Urban increased his reaching-base-safely streak to 26 games.
Cael Johnson started game two after closing game one. He allowed four runs in 2.2 innings, leaving with the game tied 4-4. His younger brother Asa (3-2) pitched 6.1 innings of relief, holding the Colonials to four hits and one run. Asa struck out while earning his third win of the season.
The Bonnies rotation allowed only seven runs with a 2.10 combined ERA. At the start of the series, the staff’s collective 5.41 ERA dropped to 5.05 following the sweep.
Tuesday, the Bonnies took the first game of the doubleheader against Bucknell 6-5 before falling to the Bisons 5-0.
Asa Johnson said he hopes the Bonnies can carry the winning momentum from the sweep into this weekend’s series, as well as the rest of the season.
“The rest of these series are going to be really critical because we got off to a slow start,” Johnson said. “We kind of put ourselves in
the hole.“Playing that doubleheader Saturday and getting both of those wins to complete the sweep was big for us, so hopefully we can
carry it over to this weekend against St. Joe’s.”
As far as playoffs are concerned, Johnson said he’s confident in his team’s ability to pull through, especially after a pep talk from coach Larry Sudbrook following a sweep at the hands of Rhode Island.
“I think we definitely can make it to the playoffs; that’s something that Coach Sudbrook said after the Rhode Island sweep,” Johnson said.
“He told us we could just fold it up now, but he said he really believed that we’re a better team and we definitely have a shot at
making the playoffs.”
The top six teams in the conference advance to the A-10 Championship May 23-26 in the Bronx, hosted by Fordham. The Bonnies moved to ninth place out of 13 teams in the A-10 after the sweep of George Washington.
Johnson said the team’s focused on moving forward in the postseason race. The Bonnies have 12 conference games (four three-game series) remaining in the season.
“These last four weekends we’re just going to try to make that (playoffs) happen,” Johnson said.
tuliosa10@bonaventure.edu
