Feb. 18, 2007

Box Score

Clemson, S.C. - The George Mason baseball team was seven outs away from taking its second-straight win over the No. 1 team in the country but the Mason bullpen was unable to come up with the outs it needed as #1 Clemson scored twice in the seventh and once in the eighth to take a 5-4 win over the Patriots.

Mason (1-2) got four innings of two-hit ball out of freshman starter Ryan Brecko and freshman reliever Dan Gerjets pitched effectively as well, but Jason Koziol, pitching for the second-straight day, gave up a two-run homer to Marquez Smith in the bottom of the seventh and an error by third baseman Ryan Uphouse allowed the game-winning run to score in the bottom of the eighth as the Patriots could not pull off the upset for the second-straight day.

Chris Romanow was 2 for 5 with a pair of RBI for Mason while Chris Henderson and Brent Weiss were each 2 for 4. Mason outhit Clemson for the second day in a row but the Patriots made two errors, both proving costly.

Clemson struck first in the bottom of the first as Addison Johnson walked, stole second, went to third on a ground out and scored on a Taylor Harbin ground out. Mason tied the game in the third when Spencer Wiggins walked, stole second and scored on a one-out single by Romanow.

In the bottom of the fourth, Mason made its first critical error. Stan Widmann singled, stole second, went to third on a ground out and scored when Doug Hogan's ball to right field was misplayed by Mike Laird.

Mason took its first lead of the game in the fifth. Weiss led off the inning with a single and went to second on a one-out walk by Chris Fournier. Romanow singled to make it 2-2 and after Scott Krieger walked, Jason Bour, who had the game-winning hit on Saturday, drove in Fournier on a fielder's choice. Harbin made a throwing error on the play which allowed Romanow to score and put Mason ahead 4-2.

In the seventh, Brad Chalk led off with a single but Gerjets got a strike out and pop out before giving way to Koziol (0-1). That's when Smith erased Mason's lead with his home run down the left field line.

Mason nearly retook the lead in the eighth when Uphouse tripled with one out. After Dan Palumbo walked, Weiss struck out and Laird grounded out to end the inning. In the bottom half, Hogan had an infield single with one out and went to third on a two-out Chalk single. That brought on Mason closer Jordan Flasher and he got the ground ball the Patriots were looking for. Unfortunately, Harbin's grounder to third got away from Uphouse and Hogan scored.

Daniel Moskos (1-0) pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to earn the win for Clemson. One day after holding Clemson to two hits, the Patriots limited the Tigers to just six hits, and only two in the first six innings.

Mason will look to capitalize on its solid play next weekend when the Patriots return to South Carolina. Mason will play College of Charleston twice and Charleston Southern once.