April 27, 2004

Box Score

Bethesda, Md. - On Tuesday morning, the George Mason baseball team found out that it had finally received a vote in one of the four national polls. On Tuesday evening, the Patriots went out and made their case for why more votes should be coming their way.

The Patriots went out and showed no mercy against the Georgetown Hoyas, downing their Big East rival, 17-3. The Patriots scored four in the first and four in the third to quickly take command and then added two runs in the fourth, two in the sixth and five in the seventh to build the insurmountable lead. Georgetown's runs came in the seventh (two) and ninth (one).

Josh Morrison (6-1) threw five shutout innings to take the win over the Hoyas (22-27) and Tyler Wingerd, Mike Puckli and Jason Mills each pitched in relief to close out the game. Nick Shimer was 2 for 2 on the day with a two-run homer, an RBI double, two walks - one with the bases loaded - and he also reached base when he was hit by a pitch.

The Patriots (28-11) have now won 14 of 16 games. They received one vote in the latest Sports Weekly/ESPN Top 25 poll. After a weekend in which they scored just 16 runs in three games, 10 runs fewer than their runs per game average, the Patriots showed the plate prowess that has them ranked among the top 20 in the nation in runs per game (8.7) and batting average (.324).

Things started quickly on Tuesday when the third batter of the game, Chris Looze, hit a two-run homer to centerfield. Shimer drew a two-out walk and Robby Jacobsen doubled him home to make it 3-0. Kyle Barrett followed with an RBI single. In the third inning, Adam Innerst singled with one out and Shimer doubled him home to make it 5-0. Kyle Barrett had a two-out RBI single to score Shimer and pinch runner Chris Romanow scored when junior second baseman Jimmy Freund hit the first home run of his career.

The Patriots added two runs in the fourth on a Shimer home run that scored Innerst. Two more runs scored in the sixth, the first when Bruce Baldwin crossed the plate on a Jacobsen sacrifice fly, the second when Romanow drove home Innerst.

The five run seventh inning saw three substitutes draw hits as Mike Genovese, Josh Campbell and Matt Barrett had three straight singles to start the frame. Innerst singled home one run, Shimer walked to drive in another and Romanow had a sacrifice fly to score the third run. Matt Cooksey added a two-run single to finish the scoring.

Shimer and Jeff Palumbo each extended their hitting streaks to 13 games. Palumbo has already had a 13-game hitting streak this year and he has hit safely in 26 of the past 27 games and he has reached safely in 37 of the team's 39 games. The Patriots have scored six or more runs 23 times in 2004 and they are 22-1 in those games.

The Patriots will play four more times this week as they host Navy on Thursday and travel to Towson for games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Patriots defeated Navy 12-1 earlier this year and Towson entered the week with an ERA of 7.12.