WHO: Softball at Jacksonville (Game 1)
WHERE: Jacksonville, Fla.
FINAL SCORE: Jacksonville 5, Mason 1
KEY PLAYERS: Marina Vitalich – 8 strike-outs, complete game; Liz Seymour – 1-3, 1 RBI

WHO: Softball vs Jacksonville (Game 2)
WHERE: Jacksonville, Fla.
FINAL SCORE:  Mason 11, Jacksonville 6
KEY PLAYERS: Liz Seymour – 3-4, 3 runs, 6 RBI; Casey Price – 2-5, 3 RBI

Jacksonville, Fla. – After giving up four runs in the sixth inning to let Jacksonville escape with a 5-1 victory in the first game, George Mason University's softball team heated up at bat to take control of the second game early on and defeat the Dolphins 11-6.

After a quick first inning, Jacksonville took the lead in the bottom of the second when Allie McCourt doubled to right field to score senior Victoria Brown. Mason responded immediately via its top hitter on the season, sophomore shortstop Liz Seymour, who singled up the middle to allow senior catcher Katie Kitts to cover two bases and get home for her third run of the season.

Fine pitching by freshman Marina Vitalich and alert defense by Mason kept the bases clean in the bottom of the third, fourth and fifth innings, but the Patriots themselves could not get in scoring position, either. The game was decided in the bottom of the sixth, when Mason gave up its second error of the game to allow unearned runs by Ciara Jones and Danielle Baker before Brooke Smith hit her first home run to center field for an RBI double to complete a four-run inning for the Dolphins.

The Patriots came close to scoring in the top of the seventh when redshirt freshman utility player Jess Middleton tripled to right field, but the score remained unchanged, 5-1.

Seymour was the center of attention early in the second game. The shortstop stole second in the top of the first and later capitalized on an error by McCourt in center field to cross home plate and open the scoring. She then grounded out Jones and Baker in the bottom of the first before hurting the Dolphins further offensively with an RBI double in the top of the second to score seniors Breanna Boyd and Sarah Solano. The Saint John, Ind. native scored her third run of the day soon after on a single by senior outfielder Casey Price to complete Mason's highest-scoring run in the doubleheader and increase the Patriots' lead to 5-0.

The Dolphins came within two at 5-3 after RBI singles by Brown and McCourt prompted the only two runs in the third inning, but the only Mason hit in the top of the fourth – courtesy of Price – was the catalyst to senior outfielder Julia Czarnecki's run, which doubled the Patriots' lead, 6-3.

Mason retained its lead after an entertaining fifth inning, in which the teams split six runs, and a scoreless sixth, before Seymour's RBI single and another by Price soon after to score the short stop finished off the Dolphins and earned the Patriots their first true road win of the season with the final score of 11-6.  

STAT BREAKDOWN

-Despite the slow start, Mason batted .317 as a team on the day (19-60), better than the Dolphins, who batted .276 at the Pruitt Softball Complex.

-The Patriots cleaned up their defensive play in the evening game and committed only one error that made it three on the day, twice fewer than Jacksonville, which committed five errors in the second game alone.

-The three pitchers fielded by Mason's coaching staff – Vitalich, senior Sarah Kleinfelter, and freshman Gabriella Lopez – recorded 11 strikeouts while Jacksonville's trio at the mound accumulated seven.

NEXT ON THE FIELD

The Patriots return to action tomorrow against Bethune Cookman for another doubleheader.