March 17, 2010

Box Score

Bethesda, Md. - The George Mason baseball team spent three hours enjoying the beautiful weather on Wednesday afternoon and they also enjoyed the short trip home from Bethesda as the Patriots traveled to Shirley Povich Field to take on the Hoyas and came away with a 4-1 win. It's the fourth time Mason has played Georgetown this year and the teams have split the four outings. The rubber match is scheduled for May 18 at Spuhler Field. Mason is now 7-4 while Georgetown is 8-7.

Chris O'Grady (1-0) picked up the win for Mason scattering five hits and no runs in six shutout innings while walking three. Jeremy Haas, Mark Hill and Shane Davis each had two hits. Charles Steinman (0-2) was the hard-luck loser for Georgetown allowing two earned runs on just one hit but with five walks over five innings.

Through the first five innings, Mason managed just a fifth as many hits as Georgetown but led the Hoyas 2-0. Haas led off the game with a homer to left and in the fourth inning, Davis, Hill and Josh Steinberg drew two out walks and a wild pitch brought Davis home to make it 2-0. The Hoyas, meanwhile, put two on in the second with one out, only to hit into a double play, and put two on in the third, but were caught stealing. In the fifth, a walk and a single put two on but a line drive to right was caught on the run by Dan Schafferman to end the inning.

Mason's bats came alive briefly in the sixth as Davis and Hill had back-to-back singles, but Davis made a base running error and the inning ended on a Steinberg fly out to center. The Patriots got a runner to third in the seventh when Chris Cook walked, took second on a ground out and went to third on a wild pitch but he was stranded there to end the inning.

Georgetown finally broke through in the seventh. Kevin Johnson led off by reaching on an error, he went to second on a wild pitch and then took third and scored on back-to-back ground outs by Danny Poplawski and Andy Lentz. The Patriots mounted a rally in the eighth when, with one out, Soares walked and Davis singled. Hill's chopper through the left side brought home Soares to once again make it a two-run game.

In the bottom of the eighth, Chip Malt led off with a double and after a strikeout and a fly out, Tom Elliott walked to put the tying run on base. But A.J. Johnson relieved Jack Zeltner and he got a 3-1 ground out to second to keep the Hoyas off the board. Mason took advantage in the top of the ninth as Josh Turner drew a full count walk, stole second and scored on a Haas single through the right side.

The Patriots will return to action on Friday when they host Duquesne at 3 p.m. in the first game at Spuhler Field this season.