May 1, 2007
The George Mason baseball team will host Temple on Wednesday at 3 p.m. as the Patriots play their final non-conference game of the 2007 regular season. Mason has seven games remaining on the schedule, with four home games this week. Mason and the Owls have faced once with the Patriots taking a 15-1 win last year in Philadelphia. Scott Krieger had four RBI in that game and Jason Bour had a two-RBI triple.
Mason finished April with a 12-6 record and they will look to carry over that strong play into May. Mason has six critical conference games on the horizon and they try avoid a two-game losing streak heading into the final stretch. The Patriots lost to Towson 7-6 on Sunday, their last time out.
The Patriots (23-21) will send Jason Koziol to the mound for the start but at least five pitchers will take the mound for Mason as no hurler is expected to go more than two innings. The Mason staff has lowered its ERA to 6.06. Temple (16-26) has not settled on a starter yet but the Owls have a 6.37 ERA.
Mason has a .322 team batting average with three regulars batting better than .370 while seven regulars are batting better than .300. The Patriots have hit 51 homers on the year with 49 of those coming from a quartet of players. Krieger had 17 homers, 50 runs and 60 RBI to go with a .391 batting average. Jason Bour has 10 homers and is also hitting .391. Chris Fournier is hitting .371 with 10 homers and 51 runs scored while Justin Bour has a Mason freshman-record 12 homers and is hitting .293.
Perhaps no Patriot had a better month than Jordan Flasher who made nine appearances and came away with nine saves. In 13 and one-third innings, he allowed no earned runs, seven hits, five walks and struck out 20 batters. He has 11 saves on the year, a new single-season school record and his 15 career saves are three shy of tying the school's all-time mark.
Krieger entered last week sixth in the nation in homers, eighth in RBI per game and 11th in slugging percentage. He had a homer, six RBI and four runs scored in four games last week. Flasher was 15th in the nation in saves and he picked up two last week. The NCAA has not yet updated the stats through last week's games.
The Owls have just two players among the nation's elite in any categories with Tom Dolan 68th in ERA and Stan Orzechowski 100th in doubles per game. The Owls are hitting .293 as a team with three regulars batting better than .340. Sean Barksdale is hitting .363 with five homers, 35 RBI and 11 steals in 12 attempts, Ryan Weber is batting .353 with 36 runs and Orzechowski is hitting .341 with 38 runs. Jamie Abercrombie has also been a dangerous hitter despite a .265 average. He has a .345 on-base percentage and 11 steals in 12 attempts.
Mason is 15-8 at home this year meaning that the Patriots have clinched a winning record at home for the 21st time in 22 years at Spuhler Field. It's also the sixth time in the past seven years that Mason has won at least 15 home games and the 17th time in 22 years.
