March 6, 2009
The George Mason baseball team will host Army this weekend in a three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at Noon and a single game on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. Mason had hoped to build some momentum heading into its series with Army but two postponements and one cancellation have left the Patriots idle for a week.
The Patriots last played on March 1, a 15-11 loss at North Florida. Mason saw its home opener on March 3 against Temple postponed and its game at Liberty the following day suffered the same fate. The series opener against Army on Friday was cancelled to give Spuhler Field more time to rebound from the snow storm which passed through Fairfax on Monday.
The two teams have never before met and they will play three games in less than 30 hours this weekend. Mason is 4-3 and has had a good weekend and a bad weekend. It opened the year in Spartanburg, S.C. and for just the third time in school history, Mason opened a year 4-0. But the Patriots didn't fare as well in Jacksonville, Fla. last weekend, going 0-3.
Shane Davis has started five of the seven games and he leads the team with a .529 average. Chris Henderson, who has hit safely in every game and has had six multi-hit games is batting .500 with a three home runs. Scott Krieger and Justin Bour also have three home runs apiece as the Patriots are slugging .521.
All three of Mason's starters this weekend had good starts followed by bad starts. Mike Modica, Kevin Crum and Dan Gerjets are all 1-1 with ERA's between 6.00 and 9.00 The bullpen has been excellent for the most part, though, as Ryan Pfaeffle, Jason Koziol and Jordan Flasher have combined for five appearances, nine and one-third innings, and no runs allowed. Shawn Griffith, Kevin Lingerman and Ryan Brecko have also been excellent out of the pen.
Army is expected to send Ben Koenigsfeld, Matt Fouch and Kyle Brueggermann to the mound. Fouch has both of Army's wins this year and he has a 4.09 ERA. Koenigsfeld is 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA while Brueggermann is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA. They have combined to pitch 23.2 of 34 innings for the Black Knights.
Clint Moore is Army's leading batter with a .389 average and two of the team's four home runs. He's slugging .889 on the year. Army also is 6 of 6 on the base paths. Army split a double-header with Ohio, lost at Davidson and won at USC Upstate, 17-11. Mason beat USC Upstate, 11-5.
