The George Mason baseball team played a doubleheader with VCU on Saturday afternoon and after losing the opener 3-2 in 11 innings, the Patriots were able to rally and win the second game, 5-4 with clutch hitting in the final two innings. Mason is now 14-18-1 on the year, 3-11 in the Colonial Athletic Association while VCU is 12-17, 5-6.

Mason starter Ryan Pfaeffle had an extraordinary performance on the mound in the second game, one which the final numbers do not reflect. The junior went a stretch of seven innings without allowing a hit. He retired eight straight batters at one point, and after walking two in a three-hitter stretch, he then retired the final 13 he faced. The only thing keeping it from being one of the best performances in school history was the first six batters of the game. The Rams hit for the cycle as a team in the first inning. Bill Cullen led off with a triple and scored on a Ryan Caldwell sacrifice bunt. Jon Lenherr followed with a double and he came home on a Michael Cheathem single. Taylor Perkins capped the inning with a home run. That was all that Pfaeffle would allow as he threw a career-high 113 pitches.

The Patriots cut the lead in half in the third when Jeremy Haas led off with a walk, Danny Lyons singled and Nick Allen laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over. Chris Cook 's grounder made it 4-1 and Brig Tison 's single trimmed the lead to 4-2. In the fifth Mason had runners on second and third with one down and couldn't score and in the sixth, the leadoff batter reached only for the Patriots to hit into a double play. Two singles followed but a ground out ended the threat. In the seventh, Mason again put runners on first and second, this time with no outs, but a fly out and a double play followed to end the inning.

In the eighth, Blaise Fernandez led off with a triple and after Zack Helgeson was hit by a pitch, Haas' sacrifice bunt brought Fernandez home. Helgeson went to second, advanced to third on a Danny Lyons ground out, and scored the tying run on Nick Allen 's single to right. After Brandon Kuter pitched a scoreless ninth, Tison led off the ninth with a single, Shane Davis drew a one-out walk, and Fernandez ended the game with a double to centerfield.

The first game also saw Mason rally late. The Rams scored a run in the first and a run in the second and then were kept off the board the rest of the way until the 11^th as Mason scored one in the sixth and one in the ninth to force extra innings. A.J. Johnson started for Mason and went seven innings, allowing just six hits and two runs while walking two. Seth Cutler-Voltz went seven innings for VCU allowing one run on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

In the first, Lenherr drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on a Joey Cujas double. In the second, Nick Kime singled, took third on a Michael Caddell single, and scored on a Paul Nice base hit. Mason answered with a solo homer from Davis in the sixth and a solo homer from Helgeson in the ninth. In the 11^th , Kime reached on a single and took second on an error by Davis in left. Caddell singled to put runners on the corners and Nice's sacrifice fly brought home the game-winning run.

The Patriots and VCU will conclude the three-game series on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.