March 18, 2010

The George Mason baseball team was supposed to have played 12 home games by now, but because of cancellations, postponements and swapping of home dates, the Patriots will play their first game of the season at Spuhler Field on Friday when they host Duquesne in the start of a three-game series. Mason (7-4) has won three straight and they will take on a Duquesne team that is 3-12 on the season. First pitch on Friday is 3 p.m.

The Patriots saw home series with Army, Fordham and Central Connecticut State canceled, they rescheduled a contest with UMBC and they swapped home dates with Georgetown and Longwood. The result is a 3-2 record on the road and a 4-2 mark in neutral-site contests. The Patriots will send Kevin Crum to the mound on Friday, Ryan Brecko on Saturday and Kris Mengle on Sunday. Crum is 3-0 on the year in four starts and he has a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings of work. He has struck out 11 and walked one on the year.

Mark Hill has excelled at the plate for the Patriots with a .537 batting average and an .805 slugging percentage. He has two homers and 10 RBI. Ryan Soares leads the team with three homers and 18 RBI and he is hitting .465. Jeremy Haas is hitting .300 with a team-high 16 runs scored out of the leadoff spot. The Patriots are batting .330 as a team and the pitching staff has a 3.92 ERA. A.J. Johnson has two saves and has not given up an earned run

Duquesne opened its final season of varsity baseball (the program is being discontinued after this season) with seven straight losses but is 3-5 since, including a 3-1 win over Kent State on Tuesday. Andrew Heck is batting .407, Rick Devereaux is hitting .400 with four homers and 14 RBI and Mark Tracy is hitting .333 with six homers and 14 RBI. But only one other player, Chris Kimmeth, is hitting better than .258 and as a team, the Dukes are batting .263. Heck has also been the top starter for Duquesne. He is 1-3 with a 3.86 ERA and he has allowed just 25 hits and three walks in 28 innings with 14 strikeouts.