FAIRFAX, Va. – George Mason senior Tyler Zombro turned in a dominant performance, allowing just six singles in a 2-0 shutout victory over Fordham on Friday afternoon at Spuhler Field to earn his first victory of the season.

Mason (8-13, 1-0 A-10) and Fordham (7-10, 0-1 A-10) were locked in a pitcher's duel throughout the day.  Zombro allowed just three hits while Rams right-hander Jimmy Murphy, who was the Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week last week, surrendered just two singles over the first five innings.

"It's absolutely huge," Mason head coach Bill Brown said.  "It's our first A-10 game of the year and it's huge for us to be sitting 1-0 as opposed to 0-1 and wondering about tomorrow." 

Mason scored the only runs of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning.  With two outs, junior Michael Smith and classmate Frank Sturek collected back-to-back singles and Tyler Nelin reached on an error by the third baseman to load the bases.

Junior Trevor Kelly then drove in both Smith and Sturek with a single to right field to put the Patriots up 2-0.

"I'm just trying to find a pitch to drive every at-bat," Kelly said.  "You win the first game on a Friday, you get some momentum.  It was a great win today and a big team effort."

Mason has scored the first run of the game in four of its last five contests.

That would be all of the offense that Zombro (1-3) would need, as he tossed the third complete game of his career. 

"Tyler has been fabulous," said Brown.  "He's thrown really well for us all year long and he's consistent.  We know exactly what we are going to get.  He's going to throw a ton of strikes and carry us deep into the ball game."

Zombro threw just 79 pitches in the outing and threw a first pitch strike to 21 of the 30 batters that he faced.  He struck out one and didn't walk a batter. 

"Keeping the ball down and letting hitters get themselves out and Nelin was great behind the plate," Zombro said.  "I just went right at it.  You're not going to find a better middle infield and they really helped me out.  We're a good defensive team and my job is to get up on the mound and pound the strike zone."

Mason recorded 13 groundouts in the game and turned three double plays.
  "Defensively today we were impeccable," Brown said.  "We always talk about getting all 27 of our outs clean.  Not only did we do that today, I think we stole a couple of them.  Alejandro Aponte had an unbelievable play, a diving play on what could have been a leadoff single.  Defensively we were flawless today."

Murphy (1-4) allowed just two unearned runs and suffered the loss in his first career complete game.  Fordham's four-game winning streak came to an end.  The Rams had outscored their opponents by a combined 22-5 over their last four games.

Kelly went 2-for-3 and now has 14 RBI this season.  Sophomore Tim Quinn was 2-for-2 with a walk.  Smith and Sturek each finished 1-for-4 with a run scored.  Smith leads the team with 21 runs scored.

The Patriots and Rams will play the middle game of the series on Saturday afternoon with the first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. at Spuhler Field.