April 26, 2010
The George Mason baseball team will take to the road on Tuesday as the Patriots look to pick up a mid-week non-conference win when the Patriots take on Maryland in College Park at 6 p.m. Live audio of the contest will be available through GoMason.com. Mason and Maryland met earlier this season with the Patriots taking a 3-1 win at Spuhler Field.
Mason is 9-1 over the past 10 games with the Patriots' lone loss coming at No. 2 Virginia, 10-3. Maryland played Virginia this past weekend and they were swept at home as the Cavaliers won a doubleheader, 5-1 and 27-4 then took a single game at Shipley Field on Saturday, 11-2. The Terps are just 1-7 in the past eight games with the lone win coming on the road at Old Dominion, 14-9. Mason is third in the CAA this year with a 10-5 mark. Maryland has played nearly as many games against CAA schools this year, running their record to 8-6 against the Colonial Athletic Association.
The Patriots are hitting .327 on the year with a 4.79 ERA and a .970 fielding percentage. After hitting 82 home runs last year Mason has hit just 30 this year but they currently have the best single-season batting average and on-base percentage in school history. Mason has gotten it done behind the batting of Jeremy Haas (.335 BA, 15 2B, 8 of 9 SB) and Brig Tison (.391 BA, 8 of 9 SB) at the top of the order and Ryan Soares (.413 BA, .713 SLG%) and Mark Hill (.397 BA, 15 2B) in the three and four spots. Since those players settled into the top four spots in the order, Mason has gone 16-7.
The Terps have just one regular batting better than .300 as Brandon Padula is hitting .374 with a team-high 30 RBI. But Maryland, which is hitting just .256 as a team, has been devastating on the base paths. The Terrapins are ninth in the nation in steals with 97 in 135 attempts. Alfredo Rodriguez leads the club with 21 steals in 26 attempts. Mason has allowed 48 steals in 60 attempts this season. Blair Delean will start for Maryland. He is 2-1 on the year with a 6.55 ERA and he has allowed the opposition to bat just .263 against him. As a team, Maryland has a 6.74 ERA. Mason will counter with senior Kris Mengle who is 2-1 on the year.
In the season's earlier meeting, Mason scored a run in the second, two in the sixth and allowed an unearned run in the eighth as the Patriots allowed just two hits in the game. Nick Kendrick started and went four innings, walking three while allowing both Maryland hits. T.J. O'Grady went two innings to pick up the win. Anthony Montefusco went three innings to get the save, not allowing a hit or a walk. Maryland's run came when Dan Gentzler reached on a two-base error and scored on back-to-back sacrifice bunts. Chris Cook had an RBI triple for Mason while Dan Palumbo had an RBI sacrifice bunt and Shane Davis had an RBI single.
With a 26-12 record, Mason has already clinched a winning record this season. With a 10-5 road mark and seven away games remaining, a win at College Park will give Mason at-worst a .500 road record this season. With a 15-28 record and 13 games remaining, Maryland would need to win-out to reach .500. Of the Terps' 15 wins this year, 11 have come at Shipley Field including a 9-5 record against non-conference opponents.
