The George Mason baseball team was unable to open a season with a win for the third-straight year, as the Patriots surrendered eight runs in the first inning and never recovered, losing to USC Upstate, 16-4. The Spartans took advantage of five Mason errors to score six unearned runs while holding the Patriots to just five hits in the loss.

After surrendering a leadoff walk in the first, the Patriots nearly turned a double play, but the first-base umpire ruled that Mason first baseman Zack Helgeson was off the bag. That proved critical as an RBI double followed, and then after a strikeout that would have been the third out if the double play had been turned, USC Upstate proceeded to score seven more runs in the frame to go ahead 8-0

Mason starter Chris O'Grady , who had a 4.06 ERA last year, lasted just two-thirds of an inning. After that, five first-year pitchers took the mound, allowing just three earned runs over seven and one-third innings.

The highlights for Mason came in the third and eighth innings. After the first eight batters were retired, Jake Kalish walked, Chris Cook was hit by a pitch, and Brig Tison tripled for Mason's first hit to make it 9-2. The Patriots then saw USC Upstate retire 15 of the next 17 Mason batters. The lone blip came in the fifth, when Danny Lyons doubled and Cook walked, but the pair were stranded.

The Spartans, meanwhile, picked up three runs in the fifth (just one of those earned), and four in the seventh (again, just one earned). In the eighth, with one out, Tison singled and Helgeson homered to make it 16-4. The final Mason hit came in the ninth when Lyons singled. But pinch hitter Jordan Hill 's fielder's choice took him off the base paths, and Cook struck out to end the contest.

The Patriots return to action on Saturday at Noon when they play Xavier on the campus of USC Upstate.