FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason baseball team rallied from a four-run deficit to force extra innings, but Georgetown came away with a 10-9 non-conference victory on Tuesday afternoon at Spuhler Field. The Hoyas moved to 21-13 as they earned a season split, avenging a 4-1 Patriots (13-24) win in February.
Josh Leemhuis powered the Mason offense with a 3-for-5, four-RBI outing, one of four Patriots with a multi-hit game. Georgetown, which posted 13 hits compared to 12 for Mason, was led by Trevor Matern's 3-for-5 game and a three-RBI day by Nick Collins.
Georgetown struck first in the opening frame with an RBI single by Collins, allowing leadoff man Justin Leeson to score after starting the game with a walk. Mason answered in the bottom half, on Anthony Montefusco's sacrifice fly to left which scored Vitaletti, who led off the Mason half being hit by a pitch.
In the second, GU took advantage of three Mason defensive errors to plate three runs, and they added an extra score in the third. Paul Bello singled up the middle to score Danny Poplawski and give the Hoyas a 5-1 lead through three innings.
Mason cut it to a two-run game in the fourth, as Leemhuis drilled a base hit to right-center field, scoring Montefusco and Tucker Tobin, the latter leading off the inning with a single to right center. Georgetown made it 6-3 in the fifth when Matern singled to right-center. It grew to a five-run lead at 8-3 after, in the sixth inning, another Patriots error combined with a Collins sac fly gave Hoyas their largest lead.
The Patriots chipped away in the sixth as Leemhuis's single escaped the right side of the infield and allowed Duncan Satherlie to score after his two-out triple to left. Mason allowed just one hit and a walk through the seventh and eighth innings, setting up the comeback.
In the eighth, Montefusco led off with a double and scored on Leemhuis's third run-scoring hit of the day. Patrick Esposito, who came on in the seventh as a pinch hitter, drove a single through the left side of the infield and scored two runners with the bases loaded and no outs. The eighth Patriot run came in two batters later, as Derek Evans followed a successful Vitaletti sacrifice bunt with an RBI groundout, scoring Hill and tying the game at 8-8.
After a scoreless ninth, the Hoyas wasted no time in the 10th, as Bello led off with a double and scored on a bases-loaded base hit to right field by Eric Webber. In the next at bad, punch hitter Curtiss Pomeroy lifted a fly out to right field, allowing Ryan Busch to cross the plate and make the score 10-8. Venditti grounded out to second base to end the threat.
Hill got a leadoff double in the home half of the tenth off new pitcher Jordan Chudacoff, and was sacrificed over by Vitaletti. Evans again drove in a run on a groundout, setting up the game's final at-bat. With Esposito standing 90 feet away from tying the game, Fernandez laced a grounder right up the middle, where it caromed off Chudacoff's leg and he was able to toss to first for the game's final out.
Chudacoff earned his first save and Charles Steinman (3-2) picked up the win after two scoreless innings, while Mason reliever Taylor Hunt (1-2) was saddled with the loss after pitching the 10th inning.
The Patriots are back in action Wednesday evening, traveling to UMBC for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
