The George Mason baseball team got some terrific
performances from its freshmen on Sunday as the Patriots jumped out early and
held off a late Wofford rally to pick up their first win of the season. The
Patriots used four second-inning runs to take control of the game and survived
an eighth-inning Terrier rally to beat Wofford, 9-4.
Mick Foley
was 3 for 4 with two RBI and three runs
scored, Blaise Fernandez
was 2 for 4 with two runs and Jordan Hill
was 1 for 3
with a run scored as the three freshmen had a stellar day at the plate. Adding
to the strong performances was freshman Jake Kalish
, who picked up the win in
relief pitching three and one-third innings allowing five hits and just one
earned run.
The Patriots took their first lead of the season in
the second inning. After the first four batters struck out on just 12 pitches,
Shane Davis
, the first left-handed hitter in Mason's lineup walked and Blaise
Fernandez followed with a single. Mick Foley
reached on an error to load the
bases and Danny Lyons
followed with a sacrifice fly. Jordan Hill
followed with
a single to once again load the bases and Brig Tison
followed with a
bases-clearing double.
Wofford got a pair of runs back in the third when,
with two outs, Josh McKinney singled and Mac Doyle followed with a double.
McKinney scored on the play on an error by Shane Davis
and Doyle came home on a
single up the middle to make it 4-2. But the Patriots got one of those runs
back in the fourth when Foley led off with a single up the middle, Lyons moved
him to second on a sacrifice bunt and he scored on a Tison single to right. It
stayed 5-2 until the top of the eighth.
With two outs in the eighth, Fernandez doubled and
scored on a Foley single up the middle to make it 6-2. Lyons walked and Hill
was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Foley and Lyons scored when Matt Moore
made an error on Tison's grounder.
With the score 8-2, Wofford got two runs back in the
eight. A leadoff double and wild pitch put a runner on third and a double by
David Roney made it 8-3. Roney went to third on an error by Tison and scored on
an error by Hill. But with the bases loaded, Brandon Kuter
came in and got an
inning-ending double play to end the threat. In the ninth, Kuter got another
double play after a leadoff single as he picked up his first collegiate save.
The Patriots will look to even their record at 2-2
when they head to Longwood on Wednesday to face the Lancers in a game scheduled
to start at 3 p.m.
