May 1, 2003

FAIRFAX, VA ... The George Mason baseball team is ranked nationally for the second straight week for fielding percentage, and the Patriots are in the Top 15 for the seventh consecutive week in the Northeast Coaches Poll conducted by CollegeBaseballInsider.com.

In the weekly NCAA Division I statistics (through games of April 27), George Mason is ranked 30th with a team fielding percentage of .970. Through 40 games, the Patriots had committed 47 errors in 1,546 chances and had turned 40 double plays. Mason entered the rankings last week at No. 26 with the same .970 percentage.

George Mason is ranked 12th in the latest weekly poll, announced April 29, in which coaches from the Colonial Athletic Association, the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Big East Conference, the America East Conference, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the Northeast Conference are allowed to vote. Mason had been ranked at No. 10 for the previous two weeks, and the Patriots entered the Top 15 poll for the first time on March 18 at No. 13.

The Patriots (26-15, 9-5 in the CAA) visit George Washington at Barcroft Park in Arlington, VA, today at 3 p.m. in a make-up game from a postponed contest earlier this season. Mason then travels to Richmond to face Virginia Commonwealth in a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series, with the Patriots and Rams (34-11, 14-3 CAA) meeting in a doubleheader Sunday at 6 p.m. and a single game Monday at 1 p.m. at The Diamond.