WILLIAMSBURG, Va.? Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, William & Mary sent their leading hitter to the plate, as Greg Sexton delivered with a walk-off triple to centerfield to give the Tribe a 4-3 victory in non-conference action on Wednesday evening at Plumeri Park. The Keydets dropped only their second game in six tries to in-state opponents, falling to 18-8 on the season. The win improves W&M's record to 16-13 on the season.
Sexton, who drove home the game's first run with a third-inning sacrifice fly, accounted for each of the team's RBI in the game, while he was joined in the offensive output by both Brent McWhorter and Greg Maliniak, who each collected three base hits in the game. Sexton ended the game off of VMI closer Kevin Crum (0-2), who took the loss while failing to convert a save opportunity for the first time in 17 career opportunities. The win was credited to W&M reliever Warrick Staines (1-0), who pitched the final two innings, who allowed only one hit along the way.
The Keydets were only able to scratch across three unearned runs in the game, with all of those coming in the third inning. Jordan Ballard reached base when he was hit by a pitch with one out, followed by a strikeout. With two outs, Chad Rice hit a sharp liner to the shortstop who failed to make the play, putting runners on the corners on the fielding error. Thane Smith gave the Keydets a 2-1 lead with a double to deep leftfield, while Eddie Van Es followed with a two-bagger of his own to make the score 3-1.
That was how the score remained until the sixth inning, when Maliniak singled to centerfield before scoring two batters later on a wild pitch tossed by Corey Bachman, making the score 3-2. W&M put baserunners aboard in both the seventh and eighth innings while trying to tie the game, but came up empty until the ninth.
Crum entered the game in the eighth and allowed a one-out double, but recorded three strikeouts in the inning to escape harm. In the ninth, Crum saw the first batter fly out to centerfield, before Tim Park got the rally started with a single through the left-side of the infield. A right-field single put runners on the corners for Sexton with one out, as he laced a ball to centerfield that David Lottman attempted a diving catch on, but saw the ball skip past him to the wall to allow both runners to score for the walk-off win.
Each starting pitcher looked sharp early on, as W&M's Cody Winslow, making his first start of the season, allowed only one hit through the first 4.2 innings before the fielding error in the fifth inning. From there, he allowed three hits and three unearned runs, before being lifted. On the other side, VMI's Michael Bowman allowed only two hits and no runs while striking out four in two innings of work. Ian Casher then came on in relief, as three of the first four batters he faced reached base and accounted for the game's first run, before Casher set down nine of the next ten batters.
The Keydets return home this weekend, as they host Savannah State in a three-game set. Friday night's game is slated for a 7 p.m. start.
