April 11, 2009

Box Score

Fairfax, Va. - The George Mason baseball team rallied from a 4-0 first-inning deficit on Saturday afternoon, shutting out Towson over the next seven innings to win their 23rd straight home game, beating the Tigers 9-6 in Colonial Athletic Association action at Spuhler Field. Mason, which is #25 in the Collegiate Baseball poll and #30 in the NCBWA poll, has won nine straight and 24 of the past 26 games. The Patriots (28-5, 9-2) lead the nation in wins and winning percentage and the 23 straight home wins is the longest active streak in the nation. Towson fell to 15-16, 3-5.

Mason had a season-high five home runs as Chris Henderson hit a pair of home runs and had four RBI and Scott Krieger, Mark Hill and Dan Schafferman all went yard as well. Mason has hit 16 home runs in the past four games. After giving up four runs in the first, Mike Modica settled in and shut down Towson while relievers Shawn Griffith and Jordan Flasher pitched the final three innings. Mason has held the opposition from scoring in 26 of the past 28 innings.

Towson scored its only runs of the series in the first. Gary Helmick led off with a walk and Steve Yarsinsky drew a one-out free pass to put a pair of runners on. Matt Collins followed with a double to right-center to make it 2-0. With two outs, Chris Wychock homered to left to put the Tigers ahead 4-0. The four-run deficit was the largest Mason had faced since March 20, trailing 5-1 at Old Dominion.

The Patriots got on the board in the third scoring a pair of runs in an unusual fashion. Spencer Wiggins walked and stole second, went to third on a throwing error by the pitcher and scored on a Henderson single up the middle. On a 1-2 pitch, Henderson took off for second. The pitch was in the dirt, getting away from the catcher and Henderson went to third on the wild pitch. Towson catcher Jason Stifler tried to get Henderson at third but his throw went into the outfield and Henderson scored to make it 4-2.

In the fourth, Hill led off the inning with his second homer of the year to cut the Towson lead to one run. Mason tied the score the next inning when Henderson hit his ninth homer of the year, a ball that cleared the batting eye behind the centerfield fence 400-feet from home plate. Mason missed a chance at a bigger inning after Krieger followed with a double and Justin Bour was hit by a pitch but Ryan Soares popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt and Hill grounded into a double play.

In the sixth, the Patriots finally took their first lead of the day, this time on a pinch-hit home run by Schafferman to left-center. Mason again missed out on a bigger inning when Weiss and Wiggins walked but Henderson grounded into a double play to keep the score 5-4.

In the seventh, Mason continued to live off the long ball, this time with Krieger hitting his 13th of the year, a blast to center that gave the Patriots a two-run lead. Mason added insurance runs in the eighth when Weiss led off with a walk, went to second on Uphouse's second sacrifice bunt of the game and scored on Wiggins' blistering single up the middle. Henderson followed with a homer to right-center to make it 9-4. Towson used three singles in the ninth to load the bases and Yarsinsky singled up the middle to make it 9-6 but Flasher struck out Matt Collins to end the game.

Mason and Towson will conclude their three-game series on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.