Photo Credit:  Bill Barrett/Atlantic 10 Conference

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ST. LOUIS, MO. – The seventh-seeded George Mason baseball team hit three home runs in round one of the Atlantic 10 Championship, upsetting second-seeded Rhode Island, the defending A-10 tournament champion 9-5 on Wednesday afternoon at the Billiken Sports Center in St. Louis, Mo.

Mason (26-31) fell behind in the bottom of the first inning when Rhode Island (30-21) scored two runs against starter Tyler Zombro.  After a single by senior Martin Figueroa, junior Chris Hess hit a two-run home run over the left field fence to put the Rams in from 2-0. 

The Patriots dented the scoreboard in the top of the second inning against Rhode Island starter Matt Murphy when sophomore Greg Popatak II belted his fifth home run of the season, a blast over the center field wall with two outs to cut the lead to 2-1. 

The Rams answered in the bottom of the second.  Sophomore Brett McManus reached on a fielding error and classmate Kevin Hess singled to left to put runners on first and second.  With two outs, leadoff hitter Jordan Powell knocked in a run with a single to make it a 3-1 game.

In the top of the third, junior Frank Sturek drew a one-out walk and sophomore Brady Acker followed with a double into the gap in left-center to put runners on second and third to start a Mason rally.  Freshman Logan Driscoll and junior Trevor Kelly then each drove in a run with back-to-back RBI singles to tie the game 3-3.

The Patriots took their first lead of the game in the top of the fourth.  Sophomore Jonathan Hansen led off the inning with line drive single to right and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by classmate Alejandro Aponte.

Sophomore Michael Smith singled to right to put runners on the corners before Sturek legged out an infield single, with Hansen racing home from third on the play to give Mason a 4-3 advantage.

In a game that went back-and-forth over the first four innings, the Rams evened the score in the bottom of the fourth when senior Mike Corin, who led the Atlantic 10 with 17 home runs during the regular season, hit a leadoff homer to tie the game 4-4.

After the home run, Zombro retired 14 of the next 16 batters he faced from the fourth through the eighth inning, including striking out the side in the fifth.

With two outs in the fifth, Popatak walked and Hansen doubled to left-center to put a pair of Patriots in scoring position.  Aponte worked the count full before driving in two runs with a line drive single to right field to put Mason in front 6-4. 

Aponte drove in two runs in a road or neutral site game for the first time this season.  His only two-RBI game of the season prior to Wednesday was on March 25 in an 8-4 win over Fordham at Spuhler Field

In the top of the sixth, Sturek reached on a fielding error by the first baseman to set the table for Acker, who hammered his seventh homer of the season, a two-run no-doubter to make it an 8-4 game.  Acker has hit two home runs in the last three games.

Mason scored at least one run in five straight innings from the second through the sixth, while the Rhode Island bats went silent.

In the top of the ninth, junior Tyler Nelin crushed his 10th round tripper of the season with a towering home run to left and it was 9-4 Mason.  Nelin has hit two homers in the last five games.

The Patriots have hit nine home runs in their last nine games and 12 over the last 15 contests.  Mason has 10 multi-home run games this season.

The Rams added a run in the bottom of the ninth when Corin hit his second home run of the day to make the score 9-5, but that's as close as Rhode Island would get.

The Patriots are just the fifth current Atlantic 10 team to deal Rhode Island a defeat in the Rams last 10 postseason appearances.

Zombro (6-5) allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits and struck out eight over 7.1 innings to earn the win.  He improved to 5-2 against Atlantic 10 opponents this season.

It's Zombro's second A-10 tournament victory.  He allowed one hit over three scoreless innings in Mason's 4-3 win against Dayton in round one of the A-10 Tournament on May 21, 2014.

Junior Ryan Ricci allowed a run and struck out two over the final 1.2 innings of the win on Wednesday.  The two Mason hurlers combined to strike out 10 batters in the game.

The Rams scored three runs on five hits in the first two innings, but managed only three hits over the final seven frames.

Murphy (5-4) allowed six runs on nine hits over 4.2 innings and suffered his first loss against an A-10 opponent this season.  He was 3-0 against conference foes during the regular season.

The teams combined for 14 runs, 21 hits and six home runs in the game.  Mason scored nine runs on 13 hits, while the Rams plated five runs on eight hits.

Acker went 2-for-4 with a double and two-run homer, drove in two runs and scored twice.  Popatak was 2-for-4 with a single, home run and a walk.  He drove in a run and scored two runs. 

Aponte finished 2-for-4 and drove in two runs.  Hansen reached base three times, going 2-for-4 with a walk a two runs scored.  Kelly went 1-for-4 with a RBI and increased his hitting streak to 16 games.

The bottom of the order combined to go 6-for-12 with three RBI and four runs scored for the Patriots.

Mason had at least one baserunner in every inning in the game.  Every player in the lineup had at least one hit, with four players recording a multi-hit game.  The Patriots went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position and scored three runs with two outs.

The seventh-seeded Patriots will face No. 6 Davidson on Thursday at the Billiken Sports Center with the first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m. (Eastern Time).