April 15, 2008

Box Score

Bethesda, Md. - The George Mason baseball team reached the .500 mark for the first time all season on Tuesday night as the Patriots got a strong outing from Kris Mengle and timely hitting throughout the lineup as Mason beat Georgetown, 6-1 at Shirley Povich Field in Bethesda, Md. Mason has won six of its past seven contests.

Scott Krieger and Mark Hill homered, Justin Bour had a pair of hits and Chris Henderson, Shane Davis and Ryan Uphouse all had RBI. Mengle took a shutout into the ninth but a hit batter and gave up two singles to the first three batters in the ninth ended his day. He finished allowing one run on seven hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in eight-plus innings.

Mason (18-18) got on the board in the second inning when Hill hit a one-out homer to left. It was Hill's fifth homer of the year but first since March 1. Mason added to the lead in the third when Ryan Soares reached on a one-out error, stole second, went to third on a throwing error and scored on Henderson's sacrifice fly to center. It became a 3-0 game when Krieger led off the fourth with his 13th homer of the season.

Mason, meanwhile dodged bullets in the first and third innings. Georgetown's first time up, the Hoyas got runners on first and third with one out but Mengle got a strikeout and ground out to end the inning. In the third, a one-out bloop double amounted to nothing as a pair of ground outs stranded the runner.

The Patriots finally put a crooked number on the board in the sixth. Bour led off with a double off the fence in right-center, and with two outs, he scored on a Davis single to right. Hill and Uphouse followed with singles to bring home Davis for a 5-0 lead.

Georgetown again threatened in the sixth when Tom Elliott led off by drawing Mengle's first walk of the game and Tommy Lee was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. But Matt Iannetta grounded into a double play and Sean Lamont struck out swinging to keep the shutout intact.

Mason's final run came in the top of the seventh when Brent Weiss led off with a double and scored when Dan Capeless mishandled Soares' grounder.

Mason will return to action on Wednesday when the Patriots play at Temple (16-17) at 3 p.m.