May 14, 2010

Box Score

FAIRFAX, Va. - Senior Ryan Soares tied a school record with his 25th double of the season, but the George Mason baseball team had trouble getting the offense going as the Patriots fell to VCU, 8-0, in game one of the two teams' Colonial Athletic Association series on Friday afternoon at Spuhler Field.

Mason, which entered the day holding a slim half-game lead over UNC Wilmington for fourth place in the CAA standings, fell to 27-17 and 10-9 in conference as the Patriots dropped their fifth straight contest. VCU, meanwhile, improved to 28-20-1 and 13-5-1 in CAA play. Ryan Farrar improved to 4-3 with six scoreless innings for the Rams while Kevin Crum (5-3) took the loss for the Patriots in six innings of work, allowing seven runs (four earned) on seven hits while striking out four.

Soares posted the day's first hit in the bottom of the first inning as he lined a double just inside the right field foul line. In doing so, the nation's doubles leader entering the week tied Mason's single-season record with his 25th of the year, matching Pete Adams and Evan Howard's totals in 1991 and 2002, respectively. He was followed by an infield single off Farrar's glove by Mark Hill, but the two-out rally ultimately produced no runs.

The Rams broke open a scoreless deadlock in the fourth inning with three runs, as a leadoff single by Joe Van Meter was followed with Brent Mikionis's RBI double to left. Mikionis scored in the next at bat on John Lenherr's base hit up the middle, and after a balk was called on Crum and Lenherr was sacrificed over to third, an RBI bunt out by Paul Nice made the score 3-0.

Mason, which left runners stranded at the end of all but two innings, could not respond on the scoreboard as a pair of errors in the fifth brought in one more run. With runners on the corners and one out, though, Crum induced a double play to end the inning and quash the rally. The Patriots' next scoring chance came in the bottom of the sixth, as Hill reached on a fielder's choice and moved over to third. Dan Palumbo was struck by a pitch for the second time and he stole second base to put two Patriots in scoring position, but a swinging strikeout produced the final out with no damage done.

Three defensive errors in the seventh inning ultimately produced four runs to break open the game, with none of the runs charged as earned to Crum or reliever Jack Zeltner who came on in the seventh. Mason again had two runners in scoring position in the eighth inning, but was unable to convert them as reliever Jonathan Watson got out of the inning unscathed.

Both VCU's Robbie Andrews and Mason's Nick Kendrick pitched one-hit, scoreless ninth innings to finish off the series opener which went to the Rams, who owned a share of second-place in the standings entering Friday's game. Van Meter led all players going 4-for-5 while Soares and Hill each tallied 3-for-4 games at the plate.

The two teams will continue the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Live audio of the game can be found at GoMason.com, with the broadcast starting approximately 15 minutes before first pitch.