April 16, 2005
Box Score
Stacen Gant has been George Mason's most consistent pitcher over the past two seasons and that consistency has never been more apparent then by taking a glance at Mason's career leaders. The senior righthander has slowly worked his way to the top of several lists and on Saturday, against Hofstra, he made his way to the top of the all-time wins list, as he earned victory No. 23 of his career, defeating the Pride, 4-3 in a Colonial Athletic Association game at Spuhler Field in Fairfax.
Gant was already first on Mason's career winning percentage and strikeouts lists. On Saturday, he struck out the first batter of the game to record the 200th strikeout of his career. The complete game victory improved his career mark to 23-6, which is a .793 winning percentage. He also lowered his career earned run average to 3.03, second-best all-time at Mason. Gant's final line on Saturday was two earned runs on five hits with two walks and 10 strikeouts.
Gant's counterpart, Ryan Dunn, was almost as good, as he limited Mason to six hits and one walk in eight innings while striking out one. He allowed five runs but only three of them were earned.
For the second day in a row, Hofstra (14-19, 3-8) jumped out to an early lead on the Patriots. In Saturday's game, the Pride scored twice in the top of the third. Josh Stewart led off with a single and Ricky Caputo followed with a double to put runners on second and third. George Anthanasopoulos' grounder to second scored Stewart and Caputo crossed the plate on Mike Walsh's sacrifice fly
Mason (20-10, 7-4) got one run back in the bottom of the third when Adam Innerst led off with a triple to right. His ball was 18 inches from going over the fence and it might as well as he scored easily on Tyler Youngs groundout to make it 2-1. The Patriots took the lead in the fifth when Matt Barrett was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Fournier doubled to put runners on second and third. With the infield drawn in, Innerst grounded out to second and Youngs followed with a grounder to short. But catcher Steve Oliveri dropped the throw from Josh Stern and Barrett scored on the play to tie the score at 2-2. Matt York's sacrifice fly to center brought home Fournier and Mason had its first lead of the day.
Hofstra fought back to tie the game in the top of the seventh as Eric Balson reached second to lead off the inning when Gant threw his slow roller into right field. Balson went to third on a ground out by Stewart and scored on a passed ball to make it 3-3. Mason took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh when Tyler Youngs' two-out double to deep left-center scored Fournier from first. Fournier had been hit by a pitch with one out. In the eighth, Mason added an insurance run as Matt Cooksey led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Looze.
York and Cooksey were each 1 for 3 with York driving in a run and Cooksey scoring a run. Fournier was 1 for 2 with two runs scored while Youngs was 1 for 3 with three RBI. Stewart was 1 for 2 for Hofstra while Anthanasopoulos was 1 for 4 with an RBI.
The two teams conclude their three game series on Sunday when they play at 1 p.m. Brent Hitz ((3-2, 3.11 ERA) get the nod for Mason while Will DeVito (4-3, 4.25 ERA) takes the mound for Hofstra. Mason is 11-0 all-time vs. Hofstra.
