Baseball Completes Doubleheader Sweep of William & Mary :: Patriots clinch third place heading into next week's CAA Tournament as Brown takes 750th career win

Patriots clinch third place heading into next week's CAA Tournament as Brown takes 750th career win

May 15, 2008

The George Mason baseball team completed a doubleheader sweep of William & Mary on Thursday afternoon, beating the Tribe 7-2 and clinching no-worse than third place in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Patriots will be the home team in their opening round game of the CAA Tournament which begins on Wednesday at Wilmington, N.C. The win was the 750th of head coach Bill Brown's career.

The Patriots came into Thursday's doubleheader trailing William & Mary by a half game in the CAA standings but Mason has assured that it will finish ahead of the Tribe with just one game remaining for each team. In the seven-inning 7-2 victory, the Patriots got a complete game performance from Dan Gerjets (6-2) as the Tribe, third in the nation in batting average, were held to eight hits and scored two runs or fewer for just the fifth time all season.

The Patriots jumped on the Tribe in the bottom of the first. Chris Henderson singled, Scott Krieger walked and Justin Bour singled to bring home Henderson for a 1-0 lead. Josh Steinberg followed with an RBI base hit and after a ground out, Bour scored on a wild pitch. Steinberg came home on a Brent Weiss double.

In the third, Mason added a run when Bour walked and Steinberg and Mark Hill followed with singles to make it 5-0. In the top of the fifth, Aaron Hurwitz led off with a double and Jeff Jones' sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a double when the ball popped up and went into right field. Hurwitz scored on James Williamson's sacrifice fly to left to make it 5-1.

Mason scored its final two runs in the bottom of the fifth as Krieger walked and Bour doubled down the rightfield line to bring him home. After Steinberg had his third hit of the game, Mark Hill brought home Bour on a fielder's choice. The Tribe got their final run in the sixth, a solo homer by Ben Guez

Mason and William & Mary will conclude their series on Friday at 3 p.m. It will be Senior Day and Mason will send its lone senior, Dan Jaycox, to the mound. A Mason win coupled with losses on Friday and Saturday by James Madison at Northeastern will put the Patriots in second place heading into the CAA Tournament. Baring that development, Mason will play the Tribe on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in the six-team double-elimination postseason tournament.