FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason baseball team built a five run lead over Marist and held on for a 10-9 win over the Red Foxes in a slugfest on Saturday at Spuhler Field.

Mason (4-6) took the early lead in the bottom of the first inning against Marist starter John Parisi.  Junior Michael Smith led off the game with a double to shallow center, moved to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a baulk to put the Patriots in front 1-0.

"It's a new day, that's the beauty of baseball," Mason head coach Bill Brown said.  "Yesterday we gave up three hits but couldn't get anything going offensively.  Today we had some good innings, so from an offensive standpoint it was a great day.  The other thing I liked was we didn't have any errors, so we didn't hurt ourselves that way."

The Patriots have scored the first run in seven of their first 10 games this season.

Mason starter Brian Marconi retired six of the first eight batters he faced in the game, including striking out the side in the first inning.

The Red Foxes evened the score in the top of the third.  Senior Tyler Kirkpatrick led off with a single and sophomore Anthony Lazar followed with a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs.  After the runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt, freshman Frankie Gregiore drove in Kirkpatrick from third with a sacrifice fly to make the score 1-1.

The leadoff batter for the Red Foxes reached base in each of the first three innings and four times in the game.

Marist (5-4) collected three straight one-out hits in the fourth to take the lead.  Sophomore Andrew Rouse singled up the middle and classmate Randy Tavares doubled to put runners on second and third.  Sophomore Chris Tracz then followed with a bunt single down the first base line, with both baserunners crossing the plate to give the Red Foxes a 3-1 advantage.

The Patriots answered in the home half of the fourth, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring three runs on four hits.  Freshman Logan Driscoll led off with a double to the gap in left-center field and moved to third on a wild pitch.  Junior Trevor Kelly drove in Driscoll with a single to center to make it a one-run game at 3-2. 

With one out in the fourth, sophomore Ryan Tassone just missed a home run when he doubled of the top of the left field wall, with Kelly racing all the way around from first to tie the score 3-3.  It was Tassone's first extra-base hit of the season.

Mason sophomore Tim Quinn then put the Patriots back in front 4-3, driving in Tassone from second base with a RBI single to center.

Marist took advantage of two walks by Marconi and another by reliever Brock Hunter to load the bases in the fifth.  With two outs and Tavares at the plate, Gregiore scrambled home on a pass ball to tie the game 4-4.

Mason answered with one swing of the bat in the home half of the inning when Kelly smashed his first home run of the season, a towering blast over the left-center field fence to give the Patriots a 5-4 edge.

"Trevor is swinging the bat really well," said Brown.  "I'm giving him an opportunity and he certainly is running with it.  He'll certainly be in the lineup tomorrow and let's just hope he stays hot.  You're always looking for combinations and giving people opportunities."

The Patriots have had seven players hit at least one home run over the first 10 games of the season.

In the seventh, Marist put runners on first and second with two outs before Mason made the call to the bullpen.  Senior Tyler Tobin walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and then hit Tavares to force in the tying run to make the score 5-5. 

Mason took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh, sending eight batters to the plate and scored three runs on two hits.  Junior Tyler Nelin singled up the middle, Driscoll walked and Kelly followed with a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. 

After an intentional walk to sophomore Greg Popatak II loaded the bases, Tassone and Quinn each drove in a run with back-to-back RBI singles and junior Brady Acker knocked in a run with a fielder's choice to give the Patriots their largest lead of the game at 8-5.

The Patriots plated two important insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth.  Smith led off with a double and scored when Driscoll tripled down the right field line to pad the lead to 9-5.  After Kelly was hit by a pitch, Mason executed a double steal, with Driscoll swiping home with the eventual game-winning run to make the score 10-5. 

"It ended up that we needed every run we got today," Brown said.  "On a day like today where it's cold and the wind is blowing out to left field, anything is possible.  You have to just keep tacking runs on and fortunately we were able to do that today and did just enough to win the game."

The Red Foxes rallied in the ninth when the first four batters of the inning reached base, including a three-run home run to cut the Mason lead to 10-9.  Freshman Jared DiCesare was summoned from the bullpen and recorded the final three outs of the game to pick up his first collegiate save.

"He's having a week," Brown said of the freshman.  "Jared is going to be an important part of our bullpen and we are going to need him to give us some quality innings late.  He finished it the way we needed to finish it."

Five players had a multi-hit game for Mason and six players scored at least one run.  The two teams combined for 23 hits and 19 runs.

Quinn went 3-for-4 with two RBI, Smith finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Driscoll was 2-for-4 with his first career triple and scored three runs.  Tassone went 2-for-5 and drove in two runs and Kelly finished the game 2-for-3 with his second career home run.

Marconi allowed four runs, three earned, on four hits over 4.1 innings of work in the no decision.  Tobin (1-1) allowed four runs on three hits over 1.1 innings and earned the win.  Hunter surrendered one run on three hits in 2.1 innings and DiCesare closed out the game in the ninth.

The final game of the series is Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.