The George Mason baseball team once again fell
behind early and was unable to climb out of an eight-run deficit as the
Patriots dropped their second-straight game to start the 2011 season, losing to
Xavier, 11-3. The game, played on the campus of USC Upstate in Spartanburg,
S.C., saw the Musketeers score three in the first, two in the second and three
in the fifth as Mason fell to 0-2 on the year while Xavier improved to 1-1.
Ben Thomas hit a pair of two-run home runs and the
Patriots committed three errors. In the first, a single up the middle, an
infield single and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out. A fielder's
choice followed to score a run and an error on the play kept the bases loaded.
Another run came home on a passed ball and a ground out made it 3-0.
In the second, Thomas hit his first homer, a two-out
shot to straight-away center. In the fourth, back-to-back doubles led off the
inning to make it 6-0 and with two-out, Thomas again homered, this time to
right. The Patriots had two hits in the second and a leadoff double in the
fourth but neither time were they able to score. Mason finally broke through in
the fifth when Nick Allen
singled, took second on a balk and scored on a Blaise
Fernandez single. The Musketeers answered in the sixth with two runs, only one
earned, off reliever T.J. O'Grady
.
Ryan Bellamy reached on an error to lead off the inning,
stole second, and after John McCambridge walked and Thomas was hit by a pitch,
Bellamy scored on a single by Phil Bauer. A Seth Willoughby double made it 10-1
Mason had singles in the sixth and seventh but finally got on the board again
in the eighth when Jordan Hill
walked, Jake Kalish
doubled and Hill came home
on a Brig Tison
sacrifice fly.
Each team scored a run in the ninth. Xavier had no
one on and two outs but a hit batter and two infield singles loaded the bases
and Bauer walked to force in a run. In the bottom of the frame, Mason loaded
the bases with no outs as Shane Davis
singled, Allen walked and Fernandez had his
third hit of the day, but Danny Lyons
fouled out, Hill grounded out (scoring a
run) and Kalish struck out to end the game.
Fernandez, Allen and Tison had seven of Mason's 10
hits. Jon Richard picked up the win for Xavier allowing one run on seven hits
with no walks and five strikeouts in seven innings. Ryan Pfaeffle
took the
loss, giving up seven earned runs, eight total, in four innings.
The Patriots will try to salvage the weekend on
Sunday when they play at Wofford at 2 p.m.
