March 19, 2004

The George Mason and William & Mary baseball teams played 12 innings on Friday and they were still unable to settle their differences as the opener of a three-game series was suspended due to darkness with the score tied at 8-8. Play will resume on Saturday at 1 p.m. with the Tribe leading off the top of the 13th inning.

The Patriots held the lead throughout the game and were one out from extending their school-record home winning streak to 16 games. Instead, the Tribe rallied with two outs and no one on to score three runs and send the game into extra innings. John Lentz hit a two-out double off of closer Mike Puckli and Chris Rahl singled him home to make it 7-5. Mike DeCarlo followed with a two-run homer, his fifth of the season. Puckli survived the inning and started the tenth before Brent Hitz came on and allowed just one run over two-plus innings.

William & Mary reliever Bill Bray kept the Patriots off balance over the next three innings, striking out four in the ninth and one each in the 10th and 11th. In the top of the 12th, Jeff Lunardi got a two-out single and Terry Revere followed with a triple to make it 8-7. But the Patriots responded in the bottom of the frame as Jimmy Freund doubled, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Campbell and scored on a wild pitch. Jeff Palumbo singled and was in scoring position when Bruce Baldwin struck out to end the afternoon's action.

The Tribe had shown amazing resiliency, posting two-out hits in the final seven innings, and scoring 7 of their 8 runs with two outs. They will try to end George Mason's home winning streak when action resumes on Saturday. Saturday's regular-scheduled game is tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m., or approximately a half hour after the conclusion of the first game, whichever comes later.