RICHMOND, Va. – The George Mason baseball team (7-11, 0-2 A-10) was taken to extra innings in the first game as it lost its first two conference games of the season to the Spiders (9-7, 2-0 A-10) by the scores of 10-6 and 8-1.
The Patriots entered the top of the ninth trailing 6-3 in the first game of the day. Tyler Nelin led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch and Ray Toto reached base on a bloop single to right field. Andrew Sable advanced the runners on a fielders choice groundout, setting up Luke Willis for a game-tying three run homerun over the left field foul pole to even the game at six. Brandon Gum and Kent Blackstone reached base with two outs in the ninth but were unable to come around and score.
Joe Williams kept the score tied in the bottom of the ninth and began his second inning of relief in the bottom of the 10th. Aaron Newman led off the frame with a walk and Jansen Fraser singled to left field which allowed both runners to move up 90 feet on a groundout. Williams walked the bases loaded with one out before his first pitch to Michael Morman was taken out of left field for the walkoff grand slam and the 10-6 Spider victory.
Richmond scored one run in each of the first six innings before the game-ending homerun in the 10th. Starting pitcher Tyler Zombro pitched five innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. Willis, Michael Smith and Trevor Kelly each had two hits in the ballgame while Gum and Kelly extended their hit streaks to 15 and 13 games, respectively. Both teams had 10 hits in the game.
The Spiders continued scoring in the early stages of the second game, plating three unearned runs in the bottom of the second all with two outs off of starting pitcher John Williams. Tyler Nelin cut the deficit to 3-1 by leading off the fourth inning with a solo homerun to left field, his third of the year.
Williams settled in in the middle innings of the contest, striking out two batters in the fourth and fifth innings while sitting down seven in a row. He left the game in the seventh after loading the bases with back-to-back walks which would come around to score when Richmond scored four runs on two hits and four walks in the inning to jump out to a 7-1 lead. Tyler Kardas and Mark Maksimow also made appearances in the frame.
Andrew Sable singled in his first three at bats of the game and ended the evening 3-4, recording one third of the hits for the Patriots in the second game. Williams moves to 4-1 with his first loss of the season.
The series wraps up on Sunday, March 22 when the two teams play at The Diamond at noon.
