Box Score ARLINGTON, Va. – James Alfonso finished with three RBI and Brady Sheetz added two more as the Hartford baseball team dropped its series finale against the Georgetown Hoyas 11-10, in 11 innings, on Saturday night at Barcroft Field. The Hawks fall to 0-3 on the season and will next play a three-game series at George Mason next weekend.
Alfonso, a senior catcher, finished the game 2-of-6 at the plate with the three RBI the most by a Hawks in 2014. Sheetz finished 2-of-5 at the plate while Trey Stover and Chris DelDebbio led the Hartford hitters with three hits each as the team finished with a game-best 17 total hits. Senior Ryan Lukach extended his hit streak to an eighth straight game, finishing 2-of-5 at the plate with four runs scored, a career-best.
Sophomore Brian Murphy started his first career game, pitching two innings and allowed three runs, one earned, on one hit and three walks. Freshman David MacKinnon suffered the loss, giving up the single run in the 11th inning in his first appearance on the hill. Overall, the Hawks five pitchers combined for eight strikeouts with sophomore Sam McKay leading the way with three.
Hartford would score first in the contest with single runs in the second and third, but the Hoyas responded in each of those innings taking a 5-2 advantage following the first three stanzas. The first Hartford run came on a fielder's choice off the bat of Adam Touhey which allowed Lukach to score after leading off the inning working a six pith walk. Sheetz would then register the first RBI of the game with his first hit of the night in the form of a double to left field which drove in Aaron Wilson who reached base by legging out a bunt single.
The Hawks would then tie the score at five, scoring three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Alfonso, DelDebbio and Touhey would all drive in runs in the inning with the latter two knocking back-to-back extra base hits including a three bagger from DelDebbio, the fifth of his career. The Hoyas then broke that stalemate with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, but that would their last until the extra frames.
A fielding error in the first at bat of the ninth inning allowed Lukach to reach base safely and advance two additional bases putting him 90 feet away with no outs. He would then benefit from another fielding error, the Hoyas finished with six total errors in the game, this time off the bat of DelDebbio with this miscue allowing Lukach to score the tying run. Behind the strong relief pitching of McKay, the Hawks would work out of a bases loaded situation in the bottom half of the inning to force extra innings for the second time in the first three games of the season.
In the top of the 10th, the Hawks looked to have pulled away scoring four runs with two of those thanks to a triple to right field by Alfonso. Sheetz and Lukach also recorded RBI's in the inning. The Hoyas responded by rallying for four runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning before scoring the walk-off victory in the bottom of the 11th with an RBI single from Nick Collins ending the three-game weekend series.Â