Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Georgetown
Bucknell Baseball Opens Spring Break Trip with 18-3 Victory Over Georgetown
3/11/2012 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 11, 2012
AUBURNDALE, Fla. - Gerry Runyan capped a nine-run second inning with his first career grand slam and Dan Weigel had his fourth consecutive solid start to begin the season helping the Bucknell baseball team to an 18-3 victory over Georgetown Sunday at Lake Myrtle Park. The contest opened a seven-game Spring Break trip to Florida for the Bison, who are 7-3 for the first time since starting the 2004 campaign with an 8-3 record.
Runyan was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs to help lead a Bucknell offense that pounded out 17 hits, including six that went for extra bases. Runyan was one of six Bison that posted multi-hit outings as Carter Bumgardner, David Duffett, Scott Reed, Robb Scott and Matt Busch collected two hits apiece.
Weigel improved to 4-0 on the season as he pitched 7.0 innings and allowed seven hits, two runs, one earned run and struck out two. He is the first Bucknell pitcher to win his first four decisions in a season since Chris Yamaguchi in 2009. Weigel has pitched at least seven innings in each of his four starts and he now has a team-best 2.12 ERA while yielded 23 hits in 29.2 innings on the season.
Georgetown (10-6), which concluded its week in Florida with a 4-4 record, was forced to use five pitchers in the contest. Starter Thomas Polus suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season. Runyan's grand slam knocked him from the game.
That nine-run second inning staked Bucknell to an early 9-0 lead. The Bison sent 13 hitters to the plate with Runyan leading off with a single. Five more singles and a hit by pitch led up to the grand slam. Seven consecutive hitters reached base at one point, five of them by singles. Runyan was the only Bison with multiple RBIs in the frame.
Bucknell tacked on four more runs in the third with the big blow being a two-out, three-run double by Scott Reed. Thirteen of the Bison's 18 runs in the contest scored when the bases were loaded as Busch added a bases-clearing double of his own to key a five-run eighth inning.
Fourteen of Bucknell's 17 hits came in the three scoring innings.
Georgetown scored single runs in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings. Paul Bello and Trevor Matern, who were both 2-for-4, accounted for nearly half of the Hoyas' nine hits against Weigel and relievers Marcus Garone and Tucker Rekucki. All nine of Georgetown's hits were singles, while Bucknell had five doubles and a home run.
Interestingly, Sunday's game was a match-up of brothers as Busch's younger brother, Ryan, is a freshman on Georgetown's roster. Bucknell's Busch made his first start of the year in left field and was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and a team high-tying four RBIs. Georgetown's Busch came off the bench in the seventh inning and had an RBI single and a walk in two plate appearances.
Bucknell, which has won six of its last seven games and is hitting .349 as a team, will look to extend its modest two-game winning streak Monday when it takes on North Dakota State at 11 a.m. at Chain of Lakes Stadium in Winter Haven, Fla. North Dakota State (8-5) defeated Penn, 15-3, Sunday at Henley Field.
