April 29, 2008
Box Score
The George Mason baseball team had little trouble scoring runs on Tuesday afternoon but during the middle innings, they had a lot of trouble keeping Georgetown off the base paths. In the end, though, the Patriots had enough offense to win for the 12th time in the past 16 games as Mason downed the Hoyas, 13-9 in non-conference action at Spuhler Field.
Ryan Soares was 3 for 6 with three RBI, Josh Stenberg had three hits and scored three runs and Chris Henderson, Scott Krieger, Mark Hill and Ryan Uphouse all had multiple hits. Justin Bour was intentionally walked in the fifth to keep alive his streak of reaching base safely in every game this season. Matt Harrigan was 5 for 5 for Georgetown while Erick Fernandez, Dan Capeless and Chip Malt all had multiple hits.
Georgetown (15-27) got on the board in the first as Tommy Lee reached on an infield single, stole second and third and scored on a Chip Malt ground out. The Patriots (23-21) took advantage of a pair of Georgetown errors in the second. Scott Krieger walked to lead off the inning and his hard slide into second on a Josh Steinberg grounder broke up a potential double play. The next batter, Mark Hill, hit a grounder that should have ended the inning but the shortstop, Tom Elliott, misplayed the ball and both runners were safe. Brent Weiss' double made it 1-1 and a balk brought home Hill to make it 2-1. Ryan Uphouse followed with a deep fly ball to center and Lee ran into the outfield wall trying to make the catch. The result was a triple and a 3-1 lead. Uphouse scored when third baseman Erick Fernandez bobbled Aaron Tenney's grounder.
In the third, Mason added a run as Steinberg singled up the middle, Hill double to the gap in right-center, Weiss walked and Uphouse brought home Steinberg on a sacrifice fly to deep left. Georgetown got a pair back in the fourth as Kelly Muir blooped a single to center with two outs and Dan Capeless followed with his fourth homer of the season to make it 5-3. Ryan Soares made it 6-3 when he led off the bottom of the inning with a homer to left.
Georgetown rallied in the fifth. A leadoff walk, a ground out, a stolen base and a bloop single to right made it 6-4 and another base hit put runners on first and second with one out. That ended the day for starter Darren McLean and brought Benji Kagan in for the Patriots. Kagan gave up back-to-back singles to Matt Iannetta and Fernandez to make it 6-6. Kelly Muir followed with a walk and Kagan left the game without getting an out. Jason Koziol (2-2) came on and he nearly got the double play ball Mason needed. Instead, Capeless reached on an fielder's choice that put the Hoyas up, 7-6.
Mason tied the score in the bottom of the fifth as Steinberg singled and Weiss, Uphouse and Tenny all walked. Soares followed with single to left on a 0-2 pitch to make it 9-7. Henderson's sacrifice fly made it 10-7. The Hoyas came right back in the sixth when Lee was hit with a pitch with one out, and Malt and Harrigan followed with singles to load the bases. Iannetta's sacrifice fly made it 10-8 and Fernandez' single to right made it a one-run game. Ryan Brecko came on and after walking Muir, got Capeless to ground out to end the threat.
Mason added insurance runs in the seventh when Krieger doubled to score Bour and Steinberg singled to plate Krieger. In the eight, Aaron Tenney reached on a one-out single, went to third on a Soares hit up the middle and scored on a Henderson sacrifice fly. Brecko didn't need the insurance runs as he shut down Georgetown over the final three and one-third innings for his third save of the year.
The Patriots will be in action on Wednesday when they take to the road to face Liberty with game time at 3 p.m.
