April 24, 2006

George Mason's baseball team will hit Spuhler Field on Tuesday afternoon for a non-conference tilt with Liberty University. The Flames come to Fairfax having won 14 of 17 games and with a 31-11 overall record.

Liberty's recent hot streak began with an 11-2 win over Mason on March 29. Liberty also downed James Madison and William & Mary in that 17-game stretch.

The Flames are batting .313 on the year and have outscored the opposition by more than 100 runs. Seven every-day players are hitting better than .300 and five are hitting .344 or better. Phil John is hitting .371, Abe Yeakel is batting .363 and Michael Just is hitting .366. Liberty has been stellar on the base paths as well, with Chad Miller, Aaron Grijalva and Patrick Gaillard are a combined 46 of 50 in steals as each have 13 or more steals.

On the pitching side, Liberty has four pitchers who have started games this year with ERAs of 4.50 or better. Starting on Tuesday against Mason is Dane Beakler who is 3-1 with a 6.82 ERA. He has pitched 33 innings on the year, walking 13 and striking out 13 while allowing the opposition to bat .378. Mason's only two runs in its 11-2 loss to Liberty came off Beakler in two innings of relief.

Mason has dropped 11 of 14 games since opening the season 11-14. The second of those 14 games was the contest at Liberty. Mason's only victories since then were a 3-1 win at Delaware, a 4-3 win over Longwood and a 4-3 win over Virginia Commonwealth in 10 innings.

Jared Petrovich will start for Mason. He is 0-2 on the year with a 6.75 ERA. His last two times out were stark contrasts. Against Longwood, he pitched three perfect innings but he followed that up by allowing five runs in two and two-third innings at James Madison.

Game time on Tuesday is set for 3 p.m.