April 16, 2007

The George Mason baseball team will host Longwood University on Tuesday afternoon at Spuhler Field in the final game of what was to be a nine-game homestand. The Patriots had Sunday's game rained out reducing the homestand to eight games. Mason is 4-3 over the first seven games of the homestand.

Longwood has had an exceptional season to date, running off a 29-11 record on the year, including a 3-1 mark against the Colonial Athletic Association. Longwood beat James Madison twice as well as Old Dominion while losing to William & Mary. Longwood has played 32 of its 40 games at home, compiling a 4-4 record on the road.

Longwood is batting .326 as a team and Robbie Bailey has paced the Lancers hitting .402 with 17 steals. Tyler Childress is hitting .362 with six homers and 29 RBI. Five Longwood regulars are batting .340 or better. As a group, Longwood has 73 steals and is averaging more than six runs per game.

The Patriots have been pretty strong at the plate as well with four regulars batting better than .360. Scott Krieger is hitting .393 with 15 homers and 49 RBI and he is among the national top 10 in homers and RBI per game. He is slugging .779. Chris Fournier is hitting .384 with 10 homers and 43 runs while Jason Bour is hitting .362 with nine homers and 31 RBI. Chris Henderosn is also batting .362 on the year. Justin Bour, a National Player of the Week earlier in the year and the current CAA Rookie of the Week has 11 homers and 39 RBI while batting .280.

Longwood will have an edge on the mound as the Lancers send senior righthander Brian McCullough to the hill. McCullough has a 5-1 record with a 2.20 ERA in nearly 74 innings of work. He has walked just 18 while striking out 60. His ERA is better than any pitcher on Mason's staff while his strikeout total is also higher than any of Mason's hurlers.

Both teams have excellent closers as John Walker II has a 1.86 ERA, a 5-2 record and one save for the Lancers while Jordan Flasher is 2-3 with a 2.42 ERA and six saves. Flasher will move into a tie for second all-time at Mason with his next save and his single-season total is currently tied for second-most in school history.