April 3, 2007

Box Score

Bethesda, Md. - The George Mason baseball team scored three or more runs in three different innings on Tuesday and the Patriots won their second straight game, topping Georgetown, 12-7. Jason Bour hit a pair of home runs for Mason as the Patriots pounded out 18 hits and took advantage of five Georgetown errors. Ryan Brecko earned his first win of the season while T.J. O'Grady picked up his first save.

Georgetown (12-17) got the scoring started in the bottom of the third when Mark McLaughlin hit a leadoff homer to right-centerfield. It could have been worse as the Hoyas had two players reach on errors in the inning but Mason escaped a second-and-third jam to keep the score 1-0.

The Patriots (13-15) got the run back in the top of the fourth and then some. Scott Krieger led off with a single up the middle and Chris Henderson hit a one-out triple to dead center to make it 1-1. Two pitches later, Jason Bour hit his sixth homer of the season, breaking out a golf swing and depositing the ball over the leftfield fence for a 3-1 Mason edge. Later in the inning, Mason loaded the bases, but the Patriots couldn't add to the lead.

Krieger led off the fifth inning and he needed just one pitch to hit his 12th homer of the year and make it 4-1. Chris Romanow followed with a double down the leftfield line and Henderson brought him home on a deep single to center. Bour followed with a home run to rightfield, his first seventh of the season and his first multi-homer game since May 5, 2006.

The scoring wasn't over for Mason in the fifth as Ryan Uphouse reached on an error, Dan Palumbo doubled to center and Brent Weiss was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs for the top of the order. Spencer Wiggins answered with a single to right that scored Weiss, but Palumbo was thrown out at the plate trying to score. On the next play, Weiss was thrown out trying to take third on a pitch in the dirt. When Chris Fournier flew out to left, it was the inning's final out, rather than first out.

Georgetown had some fight left as the Hoyas had back-to-back singles to lead off the fifth putting runners on the corner. A double-play ball made it 8-2 but left the bases clear and Brandon Davis struck out looking to end the frame. In the sixth, Georgetown made it a game when Matt Iannetta and Matt Harrigan led off with back-to-back singles and Kelly Muir hit his first collegiate homer, a one-out shot that cleared the fence in right field.

In the seventh, a leadoff double by Palumbo and walks to Weiss and Wiggins loaded the bases and Krieger's one-out single made it 9-5. The cushion didn't last long. In the seventh, against reliever Trevor Rosenberg, the Hoyas started the inning with two singles then two walks to make it 9-6 with the bases loaded and no outs. Rosenberg got a strikeout before being lifted for T.J. O'Grady. O'Grady got Matthew Maranges to foul out before Muir followed with an infield single to make it 9-7.

Mason got some insurance runs in the ninth as Fournier reached on an error and Krieger and Romanow hit back-to-back singles to make it 10-7. After a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third, Jason Bour was intentionally walked. Justin Bour pinch hit and his fielder's choice plated a run. A passed ball brought Romanow home making it 12-7 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

The Patriots return to action on Wednesday when Mason plays an exhibition game at the Potomac Nationals, the Single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.