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GW Softball 2023
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)
- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
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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Thread Starter- dmvpiranha
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Re: GW Softball 2023
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.
- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
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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Thread Starter- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
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)
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Thread Starter- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
Since last post, GW softball has experienced some tough going, splitting a pair of OOC games and losing the first two A10 series to URI and St. Louis by a 2-1 margin. Sitting at 11-12, we have our work cut out for us, with some of the better A10 teams coming up on the schedule.
As with many young teams, GW oozes potential, but is hurt by a lack of consistency at the plate, especially in the heart of the lineup, where Alexa Williams is still not available. Things got even worse when cleanup hitter Mia Parker went down with an injury against Morgan State and has been out of the lineup since.
The team has a chance to regroup this week, with a Wednesday matchup against crosstown rival Georgetown and a 3-game weekend series with Dayton in A10 play. Rose Cano has done the bulk of the pitching so far this season, but some fatigue may be creeping in, and we need to look to others to help pick up the slack. All games this week are at the Vern, so hopefully some home cooking can help move the team in the right direction.
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Thread Starter- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
Since last update, the team has been in a bit of a free fall, losing 5 in a row, including 4 at home, before recovering this past weekend with a 2-1 series win over St. Joes in Philly. The prior week, GW softball lost a mid-week contest to Georgetown and was swept 3-0 by Dayton on the weekend.
Consistency at the plate was the biggest issue, especially with Williams and Parker still missing from the middle of the lineup. Cano, who started out fast at 9-3, has been just 2-7 in her last 9 games, but has not been pitching badly. After an opening loss to St. Joes this weekend, GW rallied to take the final two games to win the series. GW is batting just .257 while opponents are hitting .290 against us. On the bright side, the injuries are letting some of our young players get valuable playing time, which will benefit fit us in the long haul.
On Wednesday, GW takes on George Mason in a doubleheader in Fairfax. The Patriots currently lead the A!0, and with a 8-4 record in conference play, GW sits at 8th (out of 10 teams that participate in softball).
Last edited by xAC (4/23/2023 2:49 pm)
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Thread Starter- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
A horrendous couple of weeks. Going 2-7 following sweeps by George Mason and Loyola Chicago and then a series loss to St. Bonaventure (1-2) this weekend left the Colonials in last place in the A10.
Lack of timely hitting again hurt GW SB, but the opening loss to St. Bonaventure really hurt when we blew a 3-run lead in the 7th inning to let a win escape us.
Although they A10 playoffs are still in reach, it's not likely we'll get there if the hitting doesn't improve dramatically. After a Wednesday non-conference tilt with Howard, we have two weekends of the regular A10 season remaining, with 3 games versus UMASS on the road starting on April 29, and then a final 3-game set versus Fordham at home beginning May 6 to finish the season.
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Thread Starter- xAC
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Re: GW Softball 2023
After getting swept this weekend by Fordham and finishing 2-4 in the last two series, the Colonials ended a disappointing season at 17-28 (7-19 in the A10) and finished out of the playoff picture in 9th place (out of 10 teams). The losses of Lang, Ponce, Eslick to graduation and Williams and Parker to injury were obstacles to difficult for this young team to overcome. Williams, last year’s A10 POY, did not suit up this season and Parker missed the last 29 games due to a mid-season injury. That contributed to a big (-.47) drop in team batting average compared to last year, so hitting was a major weakness for this squad.
The young players, led by Rose Cano, showed a lot of promise. Cano finished 14-17 after starting 29 games and had a very respectable 2.81 ERA. If only the bats could have better supported her. Freshmen Ashley Corpuz and Reese Torres had their moments. Torres led the team with 6 HRs and Corpuz finished with a team-best 26 RBIs. Grad student Arizona Ritchie led the team in batting at .306, followed by Cano at .287. Senior Maggie Greco came up with many clutch hits for GW and finished the year 3rd in batting at .277.
Wait till next year. 
Last edited by xAC (5/08/2023 3:16 pm)
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