The George Mason baseball team swept a doubleheader
from Niagara on Saturday afternoon, winning the first game, 11-6, then taking
the second game, 10-5. The Patriots improved to 9-3 on the season while Niagara
fell to 2-9.
In the first game, Chris Cook
was 2 for 4 with three
RBI and Blaise Fernandez
was 2 for 3 with two RBI as they each hit their first
home run of the season. Ryan Pfaeffle
went five-plus innings to pick up the win
while Jake Kalish
went three-plus innings to pick up the save. Every Mason
batter had a base hit in the contest as Mason scored three in the third, four
in the fourth and four in the sixth to take the win.
In the second contest, Cook was 3 for 4 with a homer
and four runs scored, Dan Schafferman
and Zack Helgeson
each had three hits and
three RBI and Brig Tison
and Jake Leonardo
had multiple hits as well. A.J.
Johnson didn't allow an earned run in six innings to improve to 2-0 on the
year.
The 10-5 win came despite the Patriots allowing five
unearned runs on four errors. In the first, Cam Stykemain reach on an error,
stole second, went to third when Eric Hink reached on an error and Stykemain
scored on a wild pitch. Hink went to second on the wild pitch, took third on a
Wynton Bernard single and scored on Ryan McCauley's fielder's choice. The
Patriots got a run back in the bottom of the first when Cook reached on an
infield single, took second on a Tison ground out and scored on Schafferman's
single.
In the third, Cook homered to lead off the inning
and tie the score and with two outs, Shane Davis
singled and Helgeson homered
to make it 4-2. Cook scored in the fourth when he, Tison, and Schafferman had
three straight two-out singles. The Purple Eagles tied it in the fifth when
Andy Wagner singled with one out and back-to-back errors loaded the bases. A
single made it 5-3, a sacrifice fly made it 5-4 and a John Wilson single tied
the game at 5-5.
But the Patriots answered in the fifth when Helgeson
singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on an error on a Leonardo
grounder to second. An insurance run came across in the sixth when Tison
singled, stole second and scored on a Helgeson single. Mason added three runs
in the seventh. First, Jake Kalish
singled and Leonardo doubled to make it 8-5.
After Jordan Hill
was hit by a pitch and Chris Cook
's sacrifice bunt resulted
in no one being thrown out and the bases loaded, Tison and Schafferman hit
back-to-back singles to make it 10-5. Branden Bartlett
and Brandon Kuter
combined to pitch the final three innings and keep Niagara off the board.
The Patriots will return to action on Tuesday when
they play at Richmond at 2:30 p.m.
