• Marina Vitalich ties the program record for career strikeouts with five in game one to push her total to 395.
• Sydnee Wells goes deep and ties her career-high of three RBI in Mason's 5-4 game two victory.
• Patriots sweep a doubleheader for the first time this season to improve to 7-7.

 
GAME ONE FINAL: Mason 2, Siena College 1
Winning Pitcher: Marina Vitalich (2-3) – Losing Pitcher: Brooke Hughes (0-3)
 
GAME TWO FINAL: Mason 5, Cornell 4
Winning Pitcher: Haellie Gordon (4-1) – Losing Pitcher: Maddie Orcutt (0-1) – Save: Bekah Ansbro (1)
 
FAIRFAX, Va. – George Mason kicked off the Cherry Blossom Classic with a Saturday doubleheader against Siena College and Cornell. The Patriots got timely hitting and quality pitching to allow them to win both games on Saturday afternoon.
 
Junior Marina Vitalich was the game one winner and picked up five strikeouts to tie Lisa Davis for the most in program history (395). Vitalich improved to 2-3 on the season and lowered her ERA to 2.72.
 
Sophomore Sydnee Wells went 2-for-6 between the two games with one of her hits coming as a two-run home run. Wells is now one home run shy of moving into a four-way tie for tenth on the all-time home run list in program history.

Junior Jess Curbeira picked up two RBI and a double on Saturday, and scored a run during game one. Curbeira's two hits came with two outs to increase her two-out average to .600 on the season.

"It was a really good day and it was a part of what we were working toward achieving – playing the kind of softball that will allow you to win games back-to-back," head coach Joe Verbanic said. "I was telling [the team] it's tough to win games at the Division I level, but if we play like that we'll win a lot of games. We're still a work in progress and have work to do, but I like the direction they're heading and I like where we are now."
 
The Saints scored a run in the bottom of the first to take an early 1-0 lead, but Vitalich struck out two to inch that much closer to tying the record. Mason had the bases loaded in the bottom of the first but were unable to plate any of them. The Patriots did force 26 pitches from Saints starter Maddie McMahon, which went a long way toward working her pitch count.
 
Vitalich snagged her fifth strikeout of the game in the top of the fourth to tie her for the most strikeouts ever while wearing a Patriots uniform. The five ended up being Vitalich's total in the game, putting her in position to hold the record when she strikes out her next hitter next time she sees the circle. Still down 1-0, the Patriots built off the newfound momentum in the bottom half of the inning when Miah Wilson singled to right to get the leadoff baserunner aboard. Alyssa Lawton pinch ran for Wilson and it proved to be the right button pushed by Verbanic, as one batter later Lawton scored all the way from first base on a bunt. Her aggressive approach forced a bad throw to first base, allowing Lawton to trot home and tie the game at 1-1.
 
Vitalich stayed sharp by retiring six of the next seven batters throughout the fifth and sixth innings and shut down the Saints bats to give the offense a chance to give her the lead in the sixth. Mason did exactly that, beginning with a Curbeira two-out double to right followed by Sullivan's go-ahead RBI single to grab its first lead of the day at 2-1.
 
Siena College got a leadoff single in the seventh, but Vitalich retired the next three batters in order to put Mason in the win column and acquire her second complete game victory of the season.
 
Haellie Gordon got the ball in game two and looked to pick up right where she left off from the Patriot Classic. She showed early that hits would come at a premium with a 1-2-3 inning to begin the game.
 
With the Patriots' half of the first being the first of three consecutive scoring innings, Wells did the job with a two-out RBI single that gave Gordon some early run support.  The second inning saw plenty of Patriots on the bases, with the big hit coming via Curbeira single that knocked home two and extended the lead to 3-0. One inning later after a Liz Seymour single, Wells blasted the first pitch she saw over the left field fence and blew the game wide open at 5-0. The home run was Wells' sixth of her career and puts her one shy of being tied for tenth for the most in program history.
 
Gordon was off to the races from there and put up two low-stress innings in the process of tossing five scoreless innings. The shutout bid came to an end in the sixth when Cornell strung together three straight singles to make the score 5-3 in favor of the Patriots. Though despite the three-run sixth inning, Gordon returned to the circle in the seventh to try and achieve her third straight complete game victory.
 
After getting the first two batters to line out in the outfield, the Big Red refused to go down without a fight and put together another three-hit stretch that drove home a run and cut the Mason lead to 5-4. With the game for all intents and purposes hanging in the balance of the next hitter, Verbanic called Bekah Ansbro out of the bullpen to get the final out – which she did and clinched the Mason victory.
 
Ansbro picked up the first Patriots' save of the season and Mason improved to 7-7 with the Saturday sweep of day one of the Cherry Blossom Classic.
 
NEXT ON THE DIAMOND
 
Mason has two more games on Sunday, one against each Cornell (12:30 p.m.) and Siena (2:30 p.m.) to wrap up the Patriot Classic. After the first day of the showcase, Mason sits alone with the only 2-0 record while Siena went 1-1 and Cornell 0-2 on Saturday.