March 2, 2010

Box Score

Richmond, Va. - The George Mason baseball team played its first mid-week game of the season on Tuesday as Mason traveled to Richmond to take on the Spiders. The Patriots entered the seventh inning locked in a tied game but the Mason bullpen couldn't keep the Spiders from pushing runs across in the seventh and eighth as the Patriots fell to Richmond, 6-4.

Andrew Lowry led off the seventh with a double and Billy Barber drove him home with a single. In the eighth, Phil Ruzbarsky walked, went to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single Lowry. The Patriots had put a runner on in the eighth and put two on in the ninth as Chris Cook walked and Aaron Tenney singled but a strikeout, fielder's choice and another strikeout ended the game.

Ryan Pfaeffle took the loss for Mason allowing two runs in one and two-third innings. Chris O'Grady had pitched the first five allowing just one earned run while walking one and allowing four hits. He struck out five. Tison was 2 for 5 and Mark Hill was 2 for 4.

Mason fell behind 2-0 in the third behind a walk, a fielding error, a sacrifice bunt, a throwing error and a single. The Patriots got a run back in the fourth when Tison singled, went to second on a fielding error by the centerfielder and scored on Shane Davis' single to right-center. In the fourth, Richmond made it 3-1 on a Cameron Brown double and a Victor Croglio single. The Patriots took the lead in the sixth when they scored three times off of Richmond starter Billy Falasco.

Tenney was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Jeremy Haas doubled to make it 3-2. After a Tison bunt single put runners on the corners, Haas scored on Dan Schafferman's ground ball which was mishandled. A walk to Davis loaded the bases and Hill singled through the left side to make it 4-3. Mason couldn't put any more runs on the board as a double play erased the lead runner and a ground out ended the inning. Richmond tied the score in the sixth on a two singles and a ground out.

The Patriots will return to action with a three-game series against Fordham this weekend. Admission is free for those games with contests scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.