Baseball: TU Earns Pair of Wins
By: Chris Wells, Staff Writer
Towson (2-7) capped off the Wake Forest Invitational with two straight victories including a 6-5 win against Harvard (2-2) Sunday at Couch Ballpark.
After Towson allowed four runs in the second inning, junior Kyle Stricke brought in relief and allowed just one hit and no runs in 6.2 innings of work.
“Stricker pitched so well to help us come from behind and win,” Head Coach Mike Gottlieb said. “It’s good to have a well pitching performance but we allowed three walks in one inning. You can’t do that often and win.”
Three Tigers had a multi-hit game as junior Brady Policelli led the way going 3-for-5 with two RBIs.
Freshman Richie Palacios recorded two hits and two RBIs while fellow freshman Cuinn Mullins went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored. Saturday, Towson earned a 3-2 victory against Richmond (9-3).
Junior Chris Henze’s return to the lineup couldn’t have come at a better time. Henze stepped up to plate and delivered a walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Tigers a win.
“He’s a valuable piece,” Gottlieb said. “But at any one time nine plus guys play and have to keep it up. Our pitching was better.”
Henze finished the night going 1-for-4 at the plate but his timely RBI won the game.
Palacios continued to impress in his rookie campaign recording two hits and scoring two runs.
Senior Austin Clark kept Towson in the game as he allowed just two hits, recorded five strikeouts and surrendered only one unearned run in five innings.
Senior Lee Lawler (1-1) was credited with the victory after surrendering three hits over 1.2 shutout innings.
The weekend didn’t start off the way Towson would have liked as they fell in defeat to host school Wake Forest (9-3) 8-4 Friday.
Junior Colin Dyer’s lone hit was a homerun, his second of the season. Freshman Richard Miller recorded two hits, with Palacios adding two hits of his own and one run scored.
Henze delivered two hits and one RBI in his first game of the season. Sophomore pitcher David Marriggi allowed just one unearned run over 4.1 innings.
Junior Matt Golczewski (0-1) struggled in defeat as he gave up seven runs, three earned, on four hits in 3.2 innings.
“We need to consistently play team defense,” Gottlieb said. “Too many mistakes in most of our losses, these things come back to haunt us.”
Towson will look to extend its win streak to three against UMBC, Tuesday March 8. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Schuerholz Park but will instead be played at UMBC due to construction issues on campus.
First pitch against the Retrievers is now scheduled for 6 p.m.