May 15, 2008
The George Mason baseball team took the first game of a Thursday doubleheader from William & Mary to move past the Tribe and into third place in the CAA standings with two games remaining. The Patriots rode four home runs, including two by Scott Krieger, to beat the Tribe, 8-6 at Spuhler Field. It was the 1100th win in school history.
Krieger was 2 for 3 with four RBI, Ryan Uphouse was 2 for 4 with two RBI and two runs and Ryan Soares was 4 for 5 and finished a triple shy of the cycle. Mike Modica picked up the win for Mason to improve to 4-5 while Ryan Brecko pitched the final two innings for his fourth save of the year.
In the top of the first, the Tribe got a pair of singles to put runners on first and third with one out and they scored the game's first run when Tim Park came home when Greg Maliniak was caught stealing. Ben Guez followed with his 10th homer of the year to make it 2-0. Mason quickly got back those runs and then some in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Soares homered to lead off the frame, Chris Henderson followed with a single and Scott Krieger hit his 15th homer of the year to make it 3-2. Justin Bour walked and Josh Steinberg singled to put two on with no outs but Steinberg was picked off, Mark Hill struck out looking and Brent Weiss grounded out to keep Mason from taking a bigger lead.
In the second, William & Mary tied the score as Tyler Stampone hit a one-out double and he scored from second with two outs on an infield single by James Williamson. Mason again responded with the long ball, this time with Ryan Uphouse leading off the second with his seventh homer of the year.
Mason starter Mike Modica ran into trouble in the fourth, giving up a leadoff hit to Stampone and then committing an error on Lanny Stanfield's sacrifice bunt, putting runners on first and second with no outs. But Modica struck out Williamson and got Paul Juliano to ground into a double play to end the threat. In the bottom of the fourth, Krieger struck again, this time with Soares on to make it 6-3.
In the fifth, Park led off with a single, went to second on Maliniak's ground out and scored on Guez' single up the middle, Guez later went to third on a Mike Sheridan single and scored on a double steal to make it 6-5. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh when Steinberg led off with a single, went to second on a Hill sacrifice bunt, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on an Uphouse single. After Uphouse stole second, Spencer Wiggins blooped a single into right-center to make it 8-5.
In the eighth, Robbie Nickle hit a solo homer to right with one out but that was the end of the scoring for the Tribe. The two teams will play a seven-inning game beginning at approximately 3:30 p.m. to conclude the doubleheader.
