Going into last weekend, William & Mary was in a three-team logjam for the final two positions in the CAA baseball tournament. The Tribe was in at that point, but not with much wiggle room.
W&M removed all doubt with a three-game sweep of Delaware that clinched a spot in the six-team tournament. The Tribe (23-21, 11-10) is currently in fourth place but could move up a spot depending on this weekend's results.
"It gives us some liberties," W&M coach Mike McRae said of clinching a spot. "We've talked about how we might need to do some things on the mound this coming weekend to set ourselves up for the tournament.
"Having clinched a spot allows us to do that and not have to push somebody if we don't need to. There are a lot of benefits from it."
By sweeping the Blue Hens at Plumeri Park, William & Mary won a series for the first time since the second weekend of April. The Tribe outscored Delaware 28-7 and had 15 extra-base hits. Ten different pitchers compiled a weekend ERA of 2.33.
No one had a bigger weekend at the plate than right fielder and lead-off man Matt Thomas, who was 7-for-11 with seven runs scored. In the series opener on Friday, he went 5-for-5 and scored four runs. He became the first W&M player to have five hits in a game since 2012.
Second baseman David Hogarth was 5-for-11 with five RBI. Center fielder Joe Delossantos and infielders Ben Williamson and Cole Ragone each had four hits.
"It's pretty easy to see that Friday and Saturday, we played pretty well in just about every facet," McRae said. "Sunday was a little bit of a sloppy game, but we showed determination when we came back after giving up a big lead."
The Tribe made only one error in 27 innings, but McRae said that stat only tells part of the story.
"I would say what's more impressive is there were some really good plays made this weekend," McRae said. "Joe Delossantos had to have at least three catches in the outfield that were incredible. There are a lot of plays like that that go down in the book as a 5-4 or 4-3 that the guys did a great job with."
The Tribe will close the regular season at Elon (25-23, 9-11), which also has clinched a tournament spot. To pull into third, W&M must make up two games on UNC Wilmington. The Seahawks are at James Madison this weekend.
The Tribe's season has been topsy-turvy with stretches of 2-9, 12-3, 1-9 and now 5-0. But McRae said the players' mental state hasn't wavered.
"I don't think this team has ever really lacked confidence," he said "I just think there have been days when guys get away from themselves and do things that don't result in positive results.
"There are guys that still fight that at time, and I guess that's part of the coaching process. We try to drag them to the right places as often as we can.
Original source can be found here.
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