The George Mason baseball team finally played in front of the home crowd on Saturday, facing Canisius College in a doubleheader, and the Patriots did not disappoint their loyal fans.
The Patriots swept the doubleheader at Spuhler Field, defeating the Griffins, 7-4 in the first game and 22-2 in the second game. Jake Glanzmann (2-0) earned the win in the first game as Rob Jacobsen hit a pair of home runs to power the Patriots. In the second game, a 10-run fourth inning allowed George Mason to take a big lead that it built on throughout the contest. Eric Gibbons (2-1) earned the win in the second game.
In the home opener, the Patriots struck in their first at-bat, as Jeff Palumbo doubled and later scored on an error. In the second, George Mason made it 2-0 when Jacobsen hit his first homer of the game. The Griffins struck back in the second, however, as Steve Spillman drew a one-out walk, Kevin Smith hit a two-out single and Ron Hooper drove them home with a single.
The score stood tied at 2-2 until the bottom of the fourth when the Patriots blew things open. Nick Shimer singled and Adam Innerst drove him home to break the tie. Then Jacobsen homered to make it 5-2. Chris Romanow walked and Palumbo and Bruce Baldwin had back-to-back singles to bring him home. Chris Looze singled to bring home Palumbo to account for George Mason's final run. The Griffins added two in the top of the sixth after Glanzmann (2-0) was out of the game. Jeff Dinwoodie struck out the side in the ninth.
Glanzmann's final line saw him surrender two earned runs on three hits in six innings, with two walks, two hit batters and three strikeouts.
In the second game, the Patriots seemed to pound out the hits without hesitation. First there were two runs in the bottom of the first as a Baldwin ground out scored Cooksey, who had tripled, and a Looze single brought home Palumbo, who had walked. After the Griffins got an unearned run in the third, the Patriots struck back with three in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-1.
Cooksey walked and advanced to third on a pair of ground outs. Three straight doubles by Looze, Shimer and Innerst accounted for the three runs.
The Patriots batted around in the fourth, bringing home seven runs. Palumbo had a two-run single and Shimer had a three-run homer in the inning. Baldwin and Looze also had RBI in the innings.
As if the 11-run deficit wasn't bad enough for the Griffins, things fell apart in the fifth when the Patriots sent 14 batters to the plate and scored 10 runs. Cooksey led off with a homer and Looze followed a few batters later with a one-out, two-run homer. The next four batters reached, two on singles and two on walks, before Josh Campbell hit a three-run homer. Despite having the bases empty, the Patriots were able to continue their rally, as Cooksey walked and Palumbo and Baldwin doubled.
Gibbons (2-1) pitched a complete game for the Patriots, allowing one earned run on six hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out five.
On Sunday, the Patriots (8-1) will once again take on the Griffins (0-5), with the final game of the three-game series set to begin at 1 p.m.
