Washington won two of three games last Friday and Saturday at the Ft. Zumwalt North Baseball Tournament.
The Blue Jays (6-10) opened the tournament with a 6-2 loss to Seckman, but came back to win their final two games over St. Dominic 8-7 and Priory, 5-3.
Washington also won Monday over New Haven, 11-0.
“We’re starting to play better, but we haven’t played our best game yet,” said Washington Head Coach Scott Bray. “Our pitching overall has been good. Our hitting is better than it was at the beginning of year. Our defense is pretty solid all the way around. We just have to be able to limit our mistakes and not compound them and we will be fine.”
Seckman
Washington fell behind 6-0 after five innings and scored single runs in the sixth and seventh frames in a 6-2 setback to Seckman (10-11) Friday afternoon.
“It was a game of inches as far as our defense goes,” Bray said. “We had a couple of plays that we almost made that could have changed the game.”
Jared Walde got the start on the mound for the Blue Jays and suffered the loss. In five innings, he allowed five runs, walked two and struck out seven.
Pete Coulter tossed one inning in relief.
“Walde took the loss, but threw pretty well,” Bray said. “Seckman just got the hits when they needed them.”
Brock Hopkins finished with three of Washington’s four hits in the contest.
“Our hitting approach was not very good,” Bray said. “We stranded 11 runners and failed to get that big hit.”
St. Dominic
Washington rebounded Friday evening to pick up one of its more impressive wins of the season, an 8-7 victory over St. Dominic (11-4).
After the Crusaders grabbed a 4-0 lead in the first inning, the Blue Jays chipped away with two runs in the second inning, one in the third and five in the fifth.
Justin Schuler got the start on the mound for Washington.
“Justin struggled a bit with his command,” Bray said.
Coulter worked 3.2 innings in relief of Schuler to earn the win.
Hopkins tossed the sixth inning and Dustin Howard took over in the seventh to earn the save.
Offensively, Mike McGilvray led the Blue Jays with two hits (one double), one walk and two runs scored.
Phillip Straatmann, Mike Reinhold, Luke Hasenjaeger, Dilan Bollmann, Howard and Coulter each added one hit.
Priory
Washington concluded tournament action Saturday, picking up a 5-3 victory over Priory.
The Blue Jays held the lead throughout the contest, which included a 5-0 advantage in the sixth inning.
Leading 1-0, Washington increased its advantage in the third inning on back-to-back home runs by Howard and Walde.
Washington scored again in the sixth inning to make the score 5-0.
Hasenjaeger got the start on the mound, working 5.1 innings, to earn the win.
Andrew Sumner got the final two outs in the sixth inning. Howard worked a scoreless inning for another save.
Howard paced the Blue Jays at the plate with three hits (one home run), two RBIs and one run.
Derek Walters, Straatmann, Schuler, Walde (home run) and Bollmann each added one hit.
New Haven
Washington defeated New Haven in five innings Monday at Ronsick Field, 11-0.
McGilvray tossed a one-hit shutout over five innings with the one hit coming to New Haven’s Ross Seitter, the first batter of the game. McGilvray walked two and struck out five.
Hopkins paced the Blue Jays with four hits (two doubles) and two RBIs.
Howard and Bollmann both added two hits. Howard had three RBIs. McGilvray and Hasenjaeger both had one hit. McGilvray added two RBIs.
“We put the ball in play much better than we had in the past few games,” Bray said.
Garrett Schoenfeld pitched three innings for the Shamrocks (6-10) and took the loss. Jake Terschluse ended the game on the mound.
