April 8, 2005
Box Score
The top two teams in the Colonial Athletic Association faced off on the baseball diamond on Friday afternoon at Spuhler Field in Fairfax, Va., and as expected, the teams played a one-run game that came down to the final pitch. What was not expected was the fact that one team would need to rally from a 10-run deficit to make the contest close. In the end, the first place Seahawks of UNC Wilmington held off the late-charging Patriots of George Mason for an 11-10 win.
The Seahawks improved to 22-11 on the year, 7-0 in CAA action. Mason fell to 17-8, 5-2. They face again on Saturday at 2 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Early in the contest, it appeared as if the game would be completely one-sided. UNC Wilmington hit four home runs in the first five innings accounting for nine of the Seahawks' 10 runs. Chris Hatcher led off the game with a solo home run to right field, where the wind was stiffly blowing out. In the second, John Raynor led off with a double and later scored on a ground out by Kenny Smith. UNC Wilmington struck for two more in the third when Hatcher hit a one-out single and Lee McLean followed with a two-run homer, again using the wind blowing out to right.
Things got out of hand in the fifth for Mason. Jason Appel led off the inning with a walk and Michael Marbry's sacrifice bunt moved him to second. Hatcher then homered to right-centerfield to make it 6-0, ending the day for Mason starter Josh Morrison. Eric Gibbons came on in relief and he wasn't very effective either, as a walk to McLean, a double by Tim Preston and a walk to Jonathan Batts loaded the bases, setting the stage for Raynor to hit a grand slam, making it 10-0.
There still seemed to be little urgency for the Patriots despite the 10-run deficit. Matt York singled, went to third on a Matt Cooksey double and scored on a Chris Looze sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth, but the Patriots gave back a run in the top of the eighth as Appel singled, went to second on a ground out and scored on a Hatcher base hit.
Things changed, though, in the bottom of the eighth. Tyler Youngs hit a one-out double and Matt York followed with a single to make it 11-2. Cooksey was hit by a pitch and after a flyout by Chris Looze, Chris Fournier stepped up with a two-out single to make it 11-3. Robby Jacobsen's base hit to right made it 11-4 and Casey Slattery's double to center brought the score to 11-6 and chased UNC Wilmington starter Ronald Hill, who had been brilliant through seven. Adam Paul entered the game and struggled against the three batters he faced. He allowed an RBI single to Adam Innerst, a pinch-hit single to Matt Barrett and an RBI single to Youngs. Allen Flood entered the game to face York and he induced a ground out to end the seven-run inning.
After Jason Mills pitched a scoreless ninth, despite a lead off triple by Preston, the Patriots rallied to nearly force extra innings. Looze hit a one-out single and Fournier doubled before a Robby Jacobsen sacrifice fly to deep left-center made it 11-9. Slattery followed with an RBI single to center but Innerst popped up to second to end the threat and the game.
Hill earned the win, improving to 6-3. He went seven and two-third innings, allowing nine hits, no walks and seven runs. Flood got his second save of the season, despite allowing two runs in one and one-third innings. Josh Morrison took the loss to drop to 2-2. He allowed six runs on six hits with one walk in four and one-third innings. Hatcher was 4 for 5 with four RBI for the Seahawks while Raynor was 2 for 4 with four RBI. Slattery was 2 for 5 with three RBI while Tyler Youngs was 3 for 4 with two runs scored.
Stacen Gant (6-0) takes the mound on Saturday for the Patriots. He will face Zach Kimball (3-3) as Mason looks to hand UNC Wilmington its first CAA loss of the year. In 2004, Mason started the CAA season 7-0 before UNC Wilmington handed Mason its first loss on the road. Those roles will be reversed on Saturday.
