Feb. 21, 2008
One year ago, the George Mason baseball team returned to the postseason after a one-year hiatus, earning the fifth seed to the CAA Tournament. That squad was young, with no seniors and 16 freshmen yet it managed to set a school record for team batting average with a .317 mark. This year, the Patriots are more experienced and once again have plenty of young talent as the Patriots will look to reestablish itself as one of the CAA's elite.
The 2008 season will begin on Friday when the Patriots play a three-game series at College of Charleston.
The Patriots have just one senior on this year's team to go with nine juniors, 16 sophomores and eight freshmen. Three of the juniors were selected to the All-Rookie Team in 2006 and three of the sophomores were selected in 2007. With that established core of talent, the Patriots should be able to replace three All-CAA Players that were lost to the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft last June.
The centerpiece of this year's lineup will once again be Scott Krieger. The junior tied a school record for home runs in a season last year when he deposited 20 balls over the fence. He also had 68 RBI and hit .365 while stealing six bases and he was named first-team All-CAA and third-team All-America by the American Baseball Coaches Association. He is ninth on the school's career home runs list, fourth in career slugging percentage and 11th in career batting average. He enters his junior year on the Wallace Watch List for one of college baseball's biggest honors. Krieger played first as a freshman and left field as a sophomore. This year, he could see time at either position with him penciled in at first.
Should Krieger play left field, sophomore Justin Bour will see time at first base. Otherwise, Bour will be set at designated hitter. Bour had one of the best freshmen seasons in school history. His 14 home runs and 56 RBI set a school record for freshmen and he was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American while being selected to the CAA All-Rookie Team. He was a National Player of the Week after hitting five home runs and 19 RBI with three grand slams, including two in one game. He's the only Mason player to ever hit more than one grand slam in a season and he's one of three to hit three home runs in a game. Also fighting for time at first will be freshman Jamison Cunningham from Yorba Linda, Calif.
Joining Krieger or Bour in the infield are veterans Brent Weiss and Dan Palumbo. Weiss is a third-year starter at shortstop and he has started 95 games in his first two seasons. Last year, he batted .263. Palumbo was selected to the All-Rookie Team last year and he is the incumbent starter at third. He batted .315 last year with a .394 on-base percentage and a .963 fielding percentage. However, he underwent offseason surgery and may not be ready for the start of the season. Mark Hill will fill in at third and backup Weiss at short. Also fighting for time at third will be freshman Brian Smith.
Second base could manned by a first-year player as sophomore Ryan Soares and freshman D.J. Califano will fight for the starting nod. Soares transferred from South Florida where he was sixth on the team in batting with a .263 average. He made just one error on the season. Califano comes to Mason from North Stafford High School in Stafford, Va. He was All-District in baseball and football and All-Region in track and field.
Three sophomores will battle for the catcher's position. Chris Henderson was named second-team All-CAA as a utility player as well as being selected to the CAA All-Rookie Team as he had a stellar first-year campaign. Playing catcher and right field, he batted .351 with 16 doubles, 38 runs scored and a .423 on-base percentage. He struck out just 24 times in 220 plate appearances while compiling a .994 fielding percentage. Josh Steinberg batted .250 without committing an error while playing third-string catcher. Aaron Tenney, a third baseman last year, was 2 for 5 with a .571 on-base percentage.
The outfield sees two veterans manning spots with Spencer Wiggins in center and Ryan Uphouse in right. Wiggins, an All-Rookie selection two years ago, missed six weeks last year with a hand injury. He batted .303 with a .434 on-base percentage and 10 steals. He had 142 at-bats but he walked 21 times and was hit by a pitch 12 times. He is sixth all-time at Mason in hit by pitch and he's in the career top 30 for stolen bases. Uphouse has started 64 games over the past two seasons while appearing in 76 games. He has played third base and the outfield. He will be pushed in right field by Jeremy Hass, a freshman from Coopersburg, Pa.
The starting left field position will open up if Krieger finds himself at first. In that case, freshman Shane Davis from West Trenton, N.J. could get a chance to prove himself. He was named All-State in baseball last year after batting .494 with four homers and 28 RBI. Should Krieger start in left, Davis will fight for time at designated hitter, along with Josh Steinberg.
As experienced as the lineup is, the starting pitching staff returns plenty of experience as well. Anchoring the staff is Dan Jaycox. The redshirt senior has appeared in 34 games with 19 starts over the past three years. Last season, after overcoming an early-season injury, he was 3-2 with a 4.09 ERA. He struck out 49 batters while walking just 17 in 61.2 innings. He allowed opposing batters to hit just .265. He is fourth all-time at Mason in strikeouts per nine innings, 10th in fewest walks per nine innings and sixth on the career strikeouts-to-walk ratio list.
Projected to join Jaycox in the weekend rotation is junior Mike Modica. The lefthander made 12 starts last year and he has 20 career starts in 29 appearances. Modica has won seven games in his two seasons with 68 strikeouts. He has pitched 49 innings or more in each of his two years. He pitched Mason to its biggest regular-season win in school history as the Patriots beat No. 1 Clemson, 5-1 on Feb. 17. Modica went six innings allowing one run on one hit in his first start of the season. He also had a strong outing in his final start of the year, limiting Delaware in the CAA Tournament before ultimately coming up short.
Three other players are expected to comprise the rotation heading into the season. Sophomore righthander Ryan Brecko and sophomore lefthander Dan Gerjets will pitch on the weekend or mid-week.
Brecko had an up-and-down season. He started by holding Clemson to one earned run in four innings and later gave up just three earned runs in seven and one-third innings against George Washington. He held Chicago State to no runs in seven innings in his final start of the year. He was one of three Mason starters with a winning record last year with a 4-3 record on the year and a 3-2 mark in starts.
Gerjets was third on the team in ERA with a 5.89 mark. He made 17 appearances with five starts compiling a 2-1 record. He struck out 17 batters while walking just eight in 44 and one-third innings pitched. That was the sixth-best single-season mark in school history for fewest walks per nine innings. His best outing of the season was against Chicago State when he allowed no runs and just five hits in seven innings. It was his longest stint of the season.
Ten players will be in the mix in middle relief. Trevor Rosenberg, Jason Koziol, Kris Mengle, Jack Zeltner, Benji Kagan, Darren McLean and Bryan Wade are the returning players who should work the middle innings or possibly pick up spot starts. Rosenberg, a sophomore lefthander, and Mengle, a sophomore righthander, each pitched more than 25 innings last year. Koziol, a junior righthander, pitched 14 innings and Zeltner, a sophomore righthander, pitched 11 innings. Kagan, McLean and Wade combined for 18 and one-third innings.
Three pitchers are expected to work at the back end for the Patriots. Junior righthander Shawn Griffith, a transfer from St. Petersburg College, tallied 48 strikeouts in 35 innings of work last year with a 3-1 mark and a 4.37 ERA. Sophomore righthander T.J. O'Grady had 18 strikeouts in 21 and one-third innings in 2007 with a 2-0 mark on the year. More than half of O'Grady's appearances have been scoreless ones and through his first 10 outings, he had a 3.60 ERA before struggling down the stretch.
The final outs in 2007 should come from the arm of Jordan Flasher. Only two Patriots in school history have ever received as much attention from the pro scouts as Flasher - Chris Widger and Mike Colangelo. Both those players eventually went on to play in the Major Leagues with Widger being drafted in the third round, the highest-ever selection by a Patriot.
Last year, Flasher was fifth in the nation in saves with 14 in 27 games. He put together a 2-4 record with a 2.84 ERA. He was second-team All-CAA and he set the school record for saves and appearances in a season while tying the school record for saves in a career. During the summer of 2007, Flasher pitched in the Cape Cod League. He was named a mid-season All-Star and he finished the season with a 2-0 record, a 1.35 ERA and nine saves in 18 appearances. He pitched 20 innings allowing 12 hits, eight walks and striking out 25. His save total was second in the league and he was named to the All-Cape Team. Like Krieger, Flasher enters the season on the Wallace Watch List.
For the 27th straight season, the Patriots will be led by head coach Bill Brown. Mason's all-time winningest coach will be joined by assistants Jeff Palumbo, in his third season, and Steve Hay, in his second season. Andy Devitt returns for his third year as a volunteer assistant coach.
After opening the season at Charleston, Mason will return to South Carolina the following weekend to play four games at Myrtle Beach against West Virginia, Western Carolina, Marshall and Coastal Carolina. The Patriots will play non-conference home-and-home games with George Washington, Richmond, Longwood, Maryland, Liberty and Georgetown. The Patriots will play home games against Brown, Radford and Coppin State with road games at Temple and Mount St. Mary's. The Patriots also have a two-game home series slated with Marist. In the conference portion of the schedule, the Patriots will host VCU, Georgia State, Old Dominion, James Madison and William & Mary while traveling to UNC Wilmington, Delaware, Hofstra, Towson and Northeastern. The conference tournament will once again be in Wilmington and it runs from May 21 through May 24, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
