BRONX, NY – The George Mason baseball team was held to two runs in the 11-2 series-opening loss to Fordham on Thursday afternoon.

The Patriots drop to 10-16 this season and 2-5 in the Atlantic 10. Fordham earns its first conference victory of the year, improving to 9-17, 1-3.

The Rams got on the board first in the bottom of the first without recording a hit. Joseph Runco led things off for the Rams by reaching base on a fielding error and promptly stole second. Two groundouts brought him home for the 1-0 lead off of John Williams.

Fordham doubled its lead in the second for a 2-0 advantage. Ryan Mahoney singled to left field with one out and was able to advance to second on another error. Ian Edmiston doubled him home in the next at bat.

Luke Willis started a late rally with two outs in the third to put Mason on the board by tripling to deep right-center field and coming home on Michael Smith's single right afterwards. Mason scored its second run of the game in the seventh.

Fordham broke open the game in the bottom of the fourth with four runs, three coming on a two-out homerun to left field by Ryan McNally. The Rams put up two more in the seventh and three more in the eighth as they totaled 11 runs on 15 hits.

Williams pitched the first six and one-third innings on 91 pitches in his third loss of the year, allowing six earned runs on 12 hits. Mark Maksimow relieved Williams to close out the seventh and Riley Coverdale recorded all three outs in the eighth after Tyler Mocabee made his first appearance of the season.

The Atlantic 10 series rolls on with an 11:00 a.m. start time on Friday, April 3.