March 7, 2005
The George Mason baseball team will take on Virginia Tech on Monday afternoon in a non-conference clash between in-state rivals. The game, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was moved up a day to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather in Fairfax.
Virginia Tech comes to Mason fresh off a three-game series at Maryland where the Hokies (6-3) lost two of three. Mason (6-3) just completed a series sweep of Fordham University in which Mason scored 37 runs and won by an average score of 12-2. The Patriots will send senior righthander Josh Morrison to the mound in the hopes that he can continue the win streak. Morrison has appeared just once this year. After today, he needs just 11 more appearances to tie the school's all-time record for career appearances, with 63 (Craig Haney 1998-2001).
Two constants for Mason this year have been senior righthander Stacen Gant and junior catcher Robby Jacobsen. Gant is 3-0 on the year with a 1.93 ERA. Gant became the school's all-time leader in winning percentage last weekend when he defeated UNC Greensboro. He improved on that mark with a complete game win over Fordham on Sunday to improve to 19-5 on his Mason career.
Jacobsen is batting a team-high .459 and he leads the squad with 14 runs scored. More importantly, he has not made an error this year. While Gant and Jacobsen have received their share of headlines so far this year, the spotlight has mostly fallen on sophomore third baseman Chris Fournier, who had the game-winning RBI in Mason's first four wins. He is batting .452 on the year, with a .605 on-base percentage and an .806 slugging mark. He leads the team in on-base and slugging percentages, as well as RBI (11) and walks (10). He is second on the team with two home runs and he was named the CAA Player of the Week last week.
Virginia Tech, playing in the ACC for the first time this season, salvaged its weekend series by winning yesterday, defeating Maryland, 13-12. Bryan Thomas has been the leading hitter this year for the Hokies, batting .500 (16 for 32) with a .719 slugging percentage. Jose Cueto is just behind him with a .390 average (16 for 41) and a team-leading 3 HR and 10 RBI. Casey Herald makes his first career start and second career appearance today. The freshman lefthander previously pitched one-third of an inning this year, taking the mound in a 10-6 win over Campbell. He faced two batters and walked one.
