April 4, 2004
Box Score
The George Mason baseball team concluded a solid week of action on Sunday when it finished off a three-game sweep of Old Dominion by downing the Monarchs, 10-2. The Patriots won all four games this week, three against Colonial Athletic Association competition, and now sit atop the CAA standings with a 6-0 league mark, 18-9 overall.
It appeared early on as if it might be a tight contest but the Patriots put runs on the board in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth to pull away from the Monarchs. Old Dominion (12-16, 2-4 CAA) also hurt itself with three errors, three passed balls and two wild pitches.
In the second, Chris Romanow singled with two outs, Jimmy Freund followed with a single as well and Matt Cooksey drove them home with a base hit to right. The Monarchs tied the game in the third when Brandon Carter led off with a double, advanced to second on a ground out by third baseman Allen Strick and scored on a grounder by Evan Chipman. The Patriots retook the lead in the bottom of the inning as Chris Looze doubled with one out, Adam Innerst reached on an error by Strick and Nick Shimer's shot to Strick also went through for an error and a 2-1 lead. Robby Jacobsen's sacrifice fly scored Innerst to make it 3-1.
Old Dominion closed the gap in the top of the fourth on Steven Harris' homer to deep left but that was the end of their scoring on the day. George Mason starter Brent Hitz settled down and retired 11 of the next 13 batters. Meanwhile, the Patriots kept scoring runs.
Palumbo reached on a fielder's choice in the fourth and scored on a Bruce Baldwin double to make it 4-2. In the fifth, Innerst and Shimer walked and moved into scoring position on passed balls and both scored on errors by relief pitcher Dana Arrowood. In the sixth, the Patriots added a run when Looze singled home Jeff Palumbo and then added two more on a two-run homer by Shimer, his team-leading ninth of the year. Palumbo scored again in the eighth on an Adam Innerst RBI single.
Hitz picked up his first win as a Patriot after allowing just two earned runs and five hits in seven and two-third innings. He walked one and struck out four. Mike Puckli pitched the final one and one-third, allowing no base runners while striking out two. Andrew Bucher absorbed the loss for Old Domion as he dropped to 2-3. Looze, Palumbo, Cooksey and Baldwin each had two hits in the game for George Mason while five different Monarchs had one hit.
The win gave the Patriots their fourth straight sweep of a CAA series at Spuhler Field. The Patriots now have 298 all-time wins at their home field. They will look for No. 299 on Tuesday when they host University of Maryland-Baltimore County at 3 p.m.
