MASON (13-24, 5-4 A-10) at Rhode Island (6-24, 3-8 A-10)
WHEN:  Saturday: 12 p.m. AND 2 p.m.; Sunday: 12 p.m.
WHERE: URI Softball Complex, Kingston, R.I.
LIVE STATS: Game 1; Game 2; Game 3 FAIRFAX, Va. – George Mason University's softball team will make its second Atlantic 10 Conference road trip of the season as it travels to Rhode Island for a three-game weekend series.  
 
Mason will go on the trip after its most successful midweek performance of 2017, in which it swept Hampton in a Wednesday doubleheader – 4-0 and 4-3 – to improve its current win streak to season-best three games.
 
All four of Mason's pitchers contributed to the successful start of the week with freshmen Taylor Mayer and Madison Larsen picking up their second wins of the season.
 
The Patriots will try to make this A-10 road adventure at least as successful as the previous one. On the first day of April, Mason swept Dayton – a team it had never beaten on the road – to ultimately win the series despite a defeat in the finale.
 
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
 
Rhode Island had quite the contrasting midweek experience and began their seven-game homestand with back-to-back losses to Massachusetts, 9-5 and 5-3. The results extended the Rams' winless streak to five games with all losses coming in A-10 play. The first games of Rhody's conference series this season have been very telling about the series as a whole – the home team has never lost a game in a series it has won and has not won a game in a series it has lost. Win or lose the Rams give up an average of 7.6 runs this season, which is 3.1 runs more than the number conceded by Patriots.
 
Kylie Shivery, one of the three Rams to start each of the team's 30 games, is Rhode Island's leading hitter with a batting average of .360. In 89 at-bats, she has produced team-high 32 hits, which include team-high 16 RBI and team-high nine doubles. Shivery is also one of the three Rhody players who lead the team with three home runs.
 
Of the two pitchers with most starts, Sarah Gunderson – with 11 – has the better ERA, 6.06. Gunderson, whose record is 2-8, has pitched one complete game for a total of 62.1 innings and has two saves to her account.