One of the beauties of baseball is that no matter what the heartbreak of the day before, you get to redeem yourself the next day. After a tough loss to Richmond at home Tuesday night, the Tribe took the first step towards redemption March 12 at Plumeri Park with a 12-3 win over the Virginia Military Institute Keydets.
“Yesterday was a tough one for us,” said Tribe Head Coach Frank Leoni. “I didn’t think we played terrible yesterday, but I didn’t think we played anywhere near what we’re capable of playing. Today, this is what we’re capable of.”
The Tribe has been more than capable this season of posting big numbers offensively, something they continued against VMI. The Tribe scored 12 runs on 17 hits and had three homeruns off the bats of catcher Tim Park, right fielder Robbie Nickle and left fielder Greg Maliniak.
Nickle started the offensive outburst in the first inning with a three-run homerun well over the right-center field fence. The blast allowed the Tribe to retake the lead after a rough top half of the inning by starting pitcher Cole Franklin, who allowed the Keydets to score two runs off two walks and two hit batters in the first.
“With the way the wind was blowing earlier in the game, what you have to do is get that pitch up and away. [Nickle] has so much power; that was out by a long shot,” said Leoni.
Park’s and Maliniak’s homeruns both came in a five-run fifth inning that chased Keydet starter Jason Farley. Park led off the inning with a solo shot that cleared the right center field fence and was followed two batters later by Maliniak, whose two-run shot traveled two-thirds of the way up the trees behind the center field fence in Plumeri Park.
Park’s homer is his fifth on the season. He is one behind first baseman Mike Sheridan (’09) for the team lead. Nickle’s homer was his fourth on the young season while Maliniak’s was his second on the year.
Aside from his home run, Park went 4-5 on the day with a double and two runs scored. “We’ve been waiting for him to have a break out game like that,” said Leoni. “He’s hitting over .400 but still, he hasn’t had that kind of game where every ball he’s hit has been a rocket. He had a great game today.”
The Tribe’s offensive success was balanced by an effective performance from the pitching staff. After a rough first inning, which saw Franklin removed after allowing eight Keydet hitters to come to the plate, reliever Cody Winslow (’10) came in to throw five scoreless innings in which he allowed only two hits. Reliever Sean Grieve (’08) recorded the save, striking out six batters in only three innings of work.
“Cody Winslow, [without] his performance, without a doubt today we don’t win,” said Leoni. “He came in and threw strikes. We’ve been preaching to our guys all year that is we play defense and throw strikes, our offense is good enough that we should be able to hang in there with most everybody we play.”
“Sean’s just a great pitcher. He can be very dominant. He went in there today and was just that. He was pretty dominant out there.”
After the first inning, the Keydets were held quiet for the rest of the game due in large part to the play of shortstop James Williamson (’09). Along with going 2-3 at the plate, Williamson recorded six of the Tribe’s 19 putouts in the field.
Williamson’s most spectacular play came in the top of the third inning. With a runner on first, Keydet DH Justin Topping hit a sharp ground ball up the middle forcing Williamson to dive for the ball and to flip the ball with his glove to second baseman Ben Guez (’09) to start the 6-4-3 double play.
“[Williamson’s] performance led us because that is the kind of thing you can build momentum off of,” said Leoni, which is something the Tribe will need as they face Old Dominion for a three game series this weekend at Plumeri Park.
“Old Dominion’s awfully good…they’re the best team in the league. We’re just hopeful we can come out here and compete like we did last year when we played them and send and early message to the rest of the league that we’re for real,” said Leoni.