May 13, 2008

The George Mason baseball team will host William & Mary this week in the final regular-season series for both teams. Both the Patriots and the Tribe will be playing in next week's CAA Tournament and they are battling for third and fourth place in the postseason tourney. The Tribe are 16-10 in CAA action and Mason is 15-10.

The Patriots enter the series, which begins on Thursday with a 3 p.m. contest at Spuhler Field, not having played in close to two weeks. Mason last took the field on May 5 at UNC Wilmington, an 8-3 loss. William & Mary has played four games since then, dropping two of three to Northeastern and losing at Virginia Tech.

The Tribe are the CAA's top hitting team with a .349 team batting average which places them third in the nation. The Tribe have three of the top four hitters in the conference as Tim Park is hitting .437 with 12 homers and 60 RBI, Mike Sheriden is hitting .421 with 14 homers and 68 RBI and Ben Guez is hitting .408 with 14 steals. The Tribe are also fifth in the nation in hits, third in doubles, fifth in slugging percentage and 16th in scoring.

Mason is batting .304 as a team but the Patriots have played excellent baseball over the past 19 games behind pitching and defense. Mason is 13-7 over that stretch as the Patriots have an ERA of 4.71 and a .975 fielding percentage over that span. For the year, the Patriots have a 5.55 ERA, fourth in the CAA, and a .970 fielding percentage, which is third. William & Mary is second in the CAA in fielding with a .970 percentage and seventh in pitching with a 6.19 team ERA.

Mason's top hitter has been Justin Bour, who is batting .394 with 12 homers and 53 RBI. Scott Krieger is hitting .360 with 14 homers and Chris Henderson is hitting .340 with 17 doubles. Mason's bullpen has come on strong of late with Ryan Brecko leading the way. He has a 3.58 ERA, a .220 opponent's batting average and a 6-1 record with three saves.

William & Mary does not have a starter with an ERA better than 5.00 and only two pitchers have an ERA below that mark. Sean Grieve has a 3.89 ERA with six saves and a 3-1 record while Pat Kantakevich has a 5-2 record and nine saves to go with a 2.64 ERA.

The series will continue on Fridqay with game time set for 3 p.m. and Senior Day will take place on Saturday, with game time set for 2 p.m.