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GW softball got underway last week with a five-game set at the Upstate Classic with a field that included Maine, Bucknell, and USC Upstate. Because of bad weather, the final two games were cancelled. Before that, GW managed a win and loss versus Maine, and a win over Bucknell. GW welcomed a number of newcomers to the squad, including Rose Cano who pitched in and won the two GW victories. Other newcomers who started all three games were Arizona Ritchie (graduate transfer) who started all games at shortstop, Reese Torres, Ashley Corpuz. They were joined by Sidney Torres, Mia Parker, Maggie Greco, and Darby Stancil. Junior Alexa Williams, last year’s A10 Player of the Year, did not make an appearance in these early contests.
This weekend, GW will compete in the Carolina Classic, with games against East Tennessee State University, South Carolina, Western Kentucky, and Delaware.
GW was picked to finish 3rd in the A10 in this year’s preseason poll behind Fordham and St. Joes.
Last edited by xAC (3/08/2023 8:12 pm)
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GW softball went 2-2 this past weekend to go 4-3 on the season. The Colonials managed victories against East Tennessee State and Delaware, but were no match for South Carolina and Western Kentucky. Freshmen have pitched every inning this year for the Colonials, with Rose Cano leading the way at 4-1, with a 1.38 ERA. Emma Fales and Lily Hanafin can be called to start or relieve when Cano is rested. The team is batting .253, but the pitching has held opponents to a .221 batting average. Scoring runs has been an issue, exacerbated by the absence of Alexa Williams in the lineup.
This upcoming weekend, GW plays at the Cavalier Clash in Charlottesville, VA. They’ll play five times, with double headers on Friday and Sunday. The opponents will be St. Johns, Longwood, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, Howard, and Virginia.
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This year feels like a bit of a reset season given how young the team is. I wonder how many teams in the country have a pitching rotation that's all freshmen. Long term it will be nice to have more options instead of riding Sierra Lange 21 innings or whatever every weekend (good to see she's on staff now!)
Given the relative youth, 4-3 feels like a solid start. Just took a look at a couple box scores. Outside of a few walks and errors (I think we were spoiled with how good the fielding was last year) the pitching/defense has been good. Alexa Williams will certainly give a jolt to the offense when she's back. Surprised to not see much bunting to get on base so far. The only thing that hopefully improves is the team's ability to throw baserunners out. Looks like the opponent's leadoff hitter gets on and is effectively guaranteed a stolen base afterwards.
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Softball completed a 2-3 weekend in Charlottesville. We managed to eke out a couple of wins around a pair of run-rule games versus St. Johns and Virginia, and were the short end of a 7-0 loss to Longwood. Our wins included a 9-1 victory over UMES, and a dramatic come from behind 7-5 victory over Howard that featured a 4-run 7th inning rally to overcome Howard’s 5-3 lead. Newcomers Ritchie and Corpuz homered to spark the rally. The young Colonials at 6-6 for the early season, are holding their own, but still miss William’s bat in the heart of the lineup.
This coming weekend, GW will be in Hampton, Virginia to play a pair of double headers. We face Hampton and Penn State on Friday and finish up with Delaware and Norfolk State on Saturday.
Last edited by xAC (2/27/2023 12:08 pm)
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After an extra inning loss to Hampton over the weekend, all of the remaining games were canceled due to bad weather. After trailing 4-1 going into the final inning, an Ashley Corpuz grand slam put GW ahead 5-4. The Colonials let Hampton come back to tie the game in the bottom of the 7th and went on to lose in the bottom of the 8th.
Today, the team took a double header from Coppin State 11-0 (in 5 innings) and 6-2. Rose Cano started and won both games. Despite getting only 5 hits in the opener, the Colonials took advantage of 4 CSU errors and 5 walks and 5 wild pitches by the CSU starter to extend the rallies that ended the game early. The bats came alive in the second game and a number of Colonials came up with key hits to come back on two occasions during the game. You can catch these games on ESPN+.
GW now stands at 8-7, They play a single game against Morgan State next Wednesday (March 15) and then start the A10 season with 3 home games against URI on March 18-19. Those games will be on ESPN+ as well.
Last edited by xAC (3/08/2023 10:21 pm)