April 10, 2004

Box Score

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Pinch-hitter John Raynor delivered a two-out, game-winning single to complete a four-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning as UNC Wilmington handed George Mason its first conference loss of the season with a 6-5 Colonial Athletic Association decision over the Patriots Saturday night at Brooks Field.

The Seahawks ended a two-game skid and pushed their record to 18-13 overall and 5-2 in the CAA. The Patriots had a six-game winning streak snapped and now stand 20-10 and 7-1.

Sophomore reliever Will Hunt (2-0) picked up the win after hurling two innings of one-hit ball before senior stopper Blake Cross recorded his eighth save and CAA-leading 28th career save by pitching a scoreless ninth. Junior righthander Stacen Gant pitched seven strong innings and gave up two runs on six hits, walking three and striking out three for GMU. Sophomore reliever Jason Mills (1-2) suffered the loss after giving up two hits and the decisive run.

Leadoff batter Chip Grawey went 3-for-4 and scored once to pace the Seahawks and Matt Sutton went 2-for-4 with a double as UNCW gained a split of the first two games in the weekend series.

Eight of GMU's starters had at least one hit as the Patriots banged out 14 hits. Jimmy Freund went 3-for-5 to lead the way and four other players - Bruce Baldwin, Chris Looze, Nick Shimer and Chris Romanow - had two hits apiece for the Patriots, who stranded 13 runners on the night.

Trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth, the Seahawks knotted the game at 5-all. Grawey reached on an infield single and moved to second on a bunt by Jonathan Batts. Grawey then stole third and scored when Aaron Smith's ground ball was booted by Looze at first. Sutton then doubled down the rightfield line to move Smith to third, setting up a two-run single by Neil Eichhorn that tied the game at five runs apiece. Kenny Smith then pinch-ran for Eichhorn and raced to third on a ground-out by Tim Preston before scoring on Raynor's clutch single off the chest of Jeff Palumbo at short.

The game was delayed for 15 minutes after the Seahawks rallied to tie the game. After Eichhorn ripped his game-tying single, a spectator near the GMU bullpen was beaned with a warm-up pitch, halting the game before paramedics arrived.

GMU scored an unearned run in the top of the first on a bases-loaded walk to Robby Jacobsen and pushed the lead to 2-0 in the second. Freund and Matt Cooksey connected on back-to-back singles and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Palumbo and after Baldwin was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Looze's ground-out to first plated Freund with the second run of the game.

The Patriots padded their lead to 3-0 in the top of the third when Shimer slammed a 0-2 offering from Sutton over the rightfield wall for his 10th round tripper of the season. The solo shot chased Sutton, who failed to pick up his first victory in seven appearances this season.

UNCW bounced back with two- runs in the bottom of half of the third to cut the deficit to 3-2. Senior first baseman Mitch Williams doubled down the leftfield line to start the rally and Matt Poulk's RBI double off the base of the wall in left-centerfield plated Williams with the first run of the game for the Seahawks. Poulk then moved to third on Grawey's ground-out to second and scored on an RBI single by Batts.

GMU added two more runs in the top of the sixth to increase its lead to 5-2. With one out, Baldwin singled to center and stole second. Looze then laced an RBI single to rightfield to score Baldwin. After Adam Innerst was hit by a pitch, Shimer delivered an RBI single to right, scoring Looze with GMU's fifth run and pushing the margin to three runs.

The two clubs wrap up the three-game series Easter Sunday with a 2 p.m. start.