The George Mason baseball team couldn't build off
its series-opening win over UNC Wilmington on Friday afternoon as the Patriots
hosted the Seahawks in a doubleheader on Saturday and Mason was swept by their
Colonial Athletic Association foe, losing the opener 13-4, then dropping the
second game 7-6 as UNCW scored the game's final seven runs.
Mason opened the second game with a 6-0 lead as the
Patriots scored one in the first, three in the second, one in the third and one
in the fourth. The Seahawks didn't get on the board until the fifth, when they
scored once. In the sixth, they knocked Chris O'Grady
out of the game with
another run and they added two in the seventh and two in the eighth to tie it.
In the ninth, they took the lead for the first time and held on in the bottom
of the inning to drop Mason to 10-14-1, 1-8 in the CAA. The Seahawks improved
to 14-10, 6-3 in the conference.
The Patriots used singles by Chris Cook
and Brig Tison
,
a wild pitch and a ground out by Dan Schafferman
to make it 1-0. The Patriots
loaded the bases in the inning but Mick Foley
struck out to end the frame. In
the second, Jake Leonardo
and Nick Allen
walked to end the day for UNCW starter
Justin Bradley. Cook reached on a sacrifice bunt and Tison singled to make it
2-0. Schafferman's single made it a three-run game and Cook scored on an error
to make it 4-0. The Patriots loaded the bases in the inning for the second time
in the game and this time Zack Helgeson
grounded into a double play to help UNCW
out of the jam.
In the third, Leonardo homered, his first as a
Patriot, and in the fourth, Shane Davis
walked, went to second on a fielder's
choice and scored on a Helgeson single. That was all the Patriots could do,
though, as closer Blaze Tart came on to start the fifth and he went the final
five innings, throwing just 53 pitches and allowing just one hit, to Davis with
two out in the ninth. Until that single, Tart faced the minimum, just 14
batters in four and two-third innings.
O'Grady was touched in the fifth when he allowed a
lead-off double and after a wild pitch, Michael Bass scored on a Hunter Ridge
sacrifice fly. In the sixth, Andrew Cain led off with a triple and scored on a
Jake Koenig double. That ended the day for O'Grady after 96 pitches. Brandon
Bartlett came on and got a double play, but in the seventh, he gave up
back-to-back homers to Ridge and Matt Campbell to close the gap to 6-4. Neight
Hoffa came on in relief and after getting out of the seventh, he ran into
trouble in the eighth.
Koenig led off the eighth with a walk and Drew
Farber singled to end Hoffa's outing. Brandon Kuter
came on in relief and after
an infield single on what was a sacrifice bunt attempt loaded the bases, Cameron
Cockman's grounded out to make it 6-5. Ridge's RBI fielder's choice tied the
game. In the ninth, Thomas Pope recorded a two-out pinch-hit single, went to
second on a wild pitch and scored on a Koenig single.
In the opener, the Patriots trailed throughout,
falling behind 5-0 after five innings. In the sixth, the Patriots trimmed the
lead to 5-2, but the Seahawks scored five in the seventh and three in the ninth
to seal the win. A.J. Johnson
gave up five runs in four innings, his worst
outing of the season. The Mason bullpen allowed eight runs, six of them earned,
in its five innings of work. Davis and Helgeson homered in the game, the fifth
of the season for each of the players.
Tison was 4 for 10 in the doubleheader for the
Patriots. Campbell was 9 for 11 with three doubles, a triple and a home run for
the Seahawks while Koenig was 5 for 8 and Ridge was 4 for 10 with four RBI.
Mason returns to action on Wednesday when the
Patriots travel to Maryland to take on the Terrapins at 7 p.m.
