• Mason splits its Sunday slate with a win over Monmouth and a loss to Syracuse.
• RS-junior Liz Seymour tallies five hits and three RBI between the two games.
• Freshman Haellie Gordon throws a complete game in game two, now has two complete game victories on her collegiate resume.

 
GAME ONE FINAL: Syracuse 11, Mason 6
Winning Pitcher: Miranda Hearn (1-0) – Losing Pitcher: Bekah Ansbro (1-3)
 
GAME TWO FINAL: Mason 4, Monmouth 1
Winning Pitcher: Haellie Gordon (3-1) – Losing Pitcher: Lilly Robles (2-2)
 
FAIRFAX, Va. – George Mason softball finished off the Patriot Classic with two games on Sunday afternoon – one against the Syracuse Orange and one against the Monmouth Hawks. The Patriots dropped game one to the Orange but bounced back with a 4-1 win against the Hawks.
 
Freshman Haellie Gordon hauled in her second complete game win of the season to improve her record to 3-1. The Salem, Va. native has won her last two starts and now has an ERA of 1.18 and a 0.97 WHIP.
 
RS-junior Liz Seymour was the catalyst in the Patriots' lineup, going 5-for-8 with three RBI between the two games. Against Monmouth, Seymour drove in three of the four Mason runs.
 
Hitting in the two-spot each game, senior Brooke Sullivan combined to go 3-for-8 with an RBI and two runs scored. Sullivan's performance in game two saw her collect two hits and cross the plate twice.
 
Sophomore Sydnee Wells added two hits in her start behind the plate against Monmouth for her second multi-hit game of the season. The La Crescenta, Calif. native boosted her average to .310 with an OPS of .838.
 
"We're a work in progress and it's early in the year. Playing at home today and yesterday, we were a nervous nelly," head coach Joe Verbanic said. "We finally settled down midway through the Syracuse game and came out against Monmouth and [beat them]. We have a great bunch of kids who work hard and get better every day."
 
Sophomore Bekah Ansbro got the ball in the first game. She was efficient in the first inning, throwing her first six pitched for strikes and only surrendering one run that was unearned. She ran into trouble in the second by giving up two RBI hits that prompted Verbanic to bring in Taylor Mayer for her first appearance of the season in the top of the second.
 
First time through the order the Patriots had two runners on with no outs as the top of the order was due up, and later made it bases loaded with a Brooke Sullivan single. However, Syracuse starter Anna-Marie Gatti got out of the major jam by getting a fielder's choice and a foul out from the next two hitters.
 
Syracuse upgraded the lead to 7-0 in the fourth inning, but Mason responded with a big fourth inning of their own that was anchored by RBI singles from Madison Aker and Seymour. In the next at-bat, freshman Hannah Rosenfeld drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the score to 7-4 and put Mason in striking distance.
 
The Orange posted four more runs in the later innings of the game to put Mason in an 11-4 hole by the bottom of the sixth. Refusing to go down without a fight, the Patriots continued to chip away at the lead and drew two more bases-loaded walks to cut into the Syracuse lead. The two runs came first from Rosenfeld with the second from Adriana Erickson the following batter.
 
Reigning A-10 Player of the Week Jess Curbeira hit a single to lead off the bottom of the seventh to get an early baserunner, followed by Seymour's third hit of the game to put runners on first and second. However, the Orange shut the door on any comeback hopes as the Patriots dropped the early game 11-6.
 
Looking to bounce back and end the Patriot Classic on a high note, Gordon patrolled the circle in game two against Monmouth and got off to a good start by only facing four hitters in the first. Both Gordon and her counterpart, Lilly Robles, kept their opponents off the stat sheet through two and a half innings.
 
The Patriots' bats exploded for a crooked number in the bottom of the third, with the first big hit coming from Sullivan in the form of an RBI double to break the ice on the empty line score. Still with two runners on, Mason wasn't finished as Seymour cleared the bases to give herself her first two RBI of the game. The Patriots looked poised to break it open even further when Sydnee Wells singled in the next at-bat until Monmouth was able to get out of the inning, but not before the Patriots took a 3-0 lead.
 
The Hawks got a run back the next half inning, but from there Gordon was lights out – retiring eight straight hitters between the fifth and seventh innings and notching two strikeouts in the process. The Patriots got Gordon another insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Seymour singled home Sullivan for her third RBI of the game, providing their pitcher with plenty of comfort to work with – finishing the game with a line of seven innings, five hits, one earned run, and seven strikeouts.
 
Behind Gordon's stellar performance and three players notching multi-hit games, the Patriots defeated Monmouth 4-1.
 
NEXT ON THE DIAMOND
 
Mason will be hosting another showcase next weekend with the Cherry Blossom Classic. The opponents will be Siena and Cornell, with the Patriots slated to face each of them twice.