Gameday! The Spiders (13-20, 3-3 A10) will kick off their third A10 series against George Washington (20-12, 4-2 A10) today at 2:00PM at Pitt Field. Yes, it was a rough mid-week slate, but despite the horrendous pitching, I think we can all take some solace in the fact that only a few of those pitchers we saw are used in weekend series.
Don't let the record fool you, GW ranks 273rd in Massey SOS, and their A10 slate so far has been comprised of a home sweep of St. Bonaventure (long-time bottom of the table team) and a 1-2 series loss at Mason (a series we won two weeks ago). This is not a bad team though, as they boast some really impressive starting pitching and their hitting stats are middle of the road in the A10.
As a team, the Revs boast a Top 5 AVG (.295) and OBP (.398) in the A10 and this is another team that will test us on the base paths (73 stolen bases in 92 attempts). On March 12, Robbie Lavey was named Co-A10 Rookie of the week. The catcher does not start in every game, but since A10 play began, he is batting 6-16 (.375) with a home run and 3 RBIs in 5 games. The hitter we will definitely need to watch out for is junior outfielder Sam Gates. He has racked up an insane slash line (.360/.434/.640), and his 7 home runs and 31 RBIs are far and away the team leaders (the rest of the Revs lineup has only combined for 14 homers).
The pitching is really where GW has found success this year. They are second in the A10 with a 5.19 staff ERA, and their Batting Average Allowed is a miniscule .238 (league leading). They give up 1 home run again on average, and their WHIP is 1.47.
Two of their starting pitchers have won A10 Pitcher of the week: Teddy Brennan on March 19 and Graham Jeffries on April 2.
Brennan is 1-2 with a 3.35 ERA, 1.41 WHIP in 37.2 Innings pitched (over 7 starts that amounts to about 5.1 innings per start). His BAA is .236 and he is striking out batters at an ~11 K/9 rate. However, in his April 6 start against Mason, he pitched 5 innings, and let up 5 hits and walked 4, good for 4 earned runs allowed. So that gives you an idea how good his stats were before this game. We should see him on Saturday.
Jeffries is a Grad Student transfer who previously pitched at Salve Regina in Rhode Island. He has typically been GW's Sunday starter, also got roughed up at Mason last weekend (1.1 IP, 6 Runs, 5 Earned, 7H, 2 BB, 0 K). However, before that start he had been a really successful pitcher for the Revs, pitching to a 3.37 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. He does walk a lot of batters in some of his starts (3+ walks in five of eight starts), and does not strike people out at a high rate (~9 K/9).
This feels like a home series that we could take two, but would not be surprised if we only ended with one.
