KINGSTON, RI – Tied at six apiece with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Rhode Island's Pat Quinn hit a solo homerun over the right field wall to clinch the 7-6 victory for the Rams on Sunday, sending the George Mason baseball team (22-13, 9-4) home with two of three wins over the weekend.
The Rams improve to 7-27, 3-10 in the A-10 after hitting their first homerun of the season in their own ballpark. Tyler Zombro takes the loss after allowing the winning run, pitching the final two innings as he allowed two runs on three hits with two strikeouts.
Rhode Island was able to put a run on the board for the first time all weekend in the bottom of the third inning, using two singles and a sacrifice bunt two take the early 1-0 lead. John Williams made his fifth start of the season for the Patriots, lasting six innings and allowing the first two runs to score on seven hits while striking out five batters in a no-decision.
The Rams added another run in the bottom of the fourth before Mason took advantage of three Rhode Island errors in the top of the fifth to score five runs in the frame. With two outs in the inning, Chris Cook lined a double into left field and came around to score on Mick Foley's second triple of the series to cut the deficit to 2-1. Willis reached base on a walk and promptly stole one of his four bases on the day to reach second and came home along with Foley on the first of three errors in the inning to make take a 3-2 lead.
Brandon Gum, Blaise Fernandez and Tucker Tobin each reached on throwing errors by the Rams in the fifth, Gum and Fernandez each reaching the plate to extended the lead to 5-3, scoring five runs on two hits in the inning. Mason scored all six of its runs on only five hits in the ballgame while fielding posting zero fielding errors to Rhode Island's five.
The Patriots tacked on their sixth run in the top of the seventh when Foley came home to score on a Fernandez fielder's choice with one out. Foley reached base after leading off the frame with a double down the left field line. The first baseman went 2-4 on the afternoon, joined by Luke Willis who added four stolen bases, one shy of tying a program record for steals in one game.
Rhode Island answered back in the bottom of the seventh with four runs on six consecutive singles to even the score. Mark Maksimow pitched two-thirds of the inning, allowing three runs on four hits before exiting the game for Zombro, who pitched the remainder of the contest. RJ Warnock picked up the win for the Rams after pitching a perfect top of the ninth.
Mason plays two midweek games next week, beginning with a matchup in Towson, Md. Against Towson on Tuesday, April 22 at 3:00 p.m. followed by the second meeting of the season with Maryland in College Park on Wednesday, April 23 at 6:00 p.m.
