• George Mason rides five-run seventh inning to complete a comeback victory over La Salle.
• Three Patriots homer in the top of the seventh, the most in a game and inning by the team this season.
• The Green and Gold have now won seven of their last eight A-10 games.

 
FINAL: George Mason 6, La Salle 3
Winning Pitcher: Haellie Gordon (9-10) – Losing Pitcher: McKenzie Peace (0-2)
 
PHILADELPHIA – The theme for the month of April with the George Mason softball team has featured victories in dramatic and comeback fashion, as well as timely hitting in key situations.
 
All three of those things rang true in the Patriots' win over La Salle on Sunday afternoon to complete the season sweep of the Explorers. After letting a 1-0 lead slip away in the bottom of the sixth, the squad mashed three home runs in the seventh to retake the lead at 6-3 and go on to win the game by that score.
 
Junior Jess Curbeira got the five-run seventh started with a solo home run to the opposite field, cutting the Explorer lead to 3-2. Curbeira was the leadoff hitter in the seventh inning and turned the lineup over to the top of the order.
 
Lost in all the long balls was arguably the most important hit of the inning. RS-junior Jess Middleton tied the game with a two-out double that kept the Patriots alive, and at the very least would force a bottom of the seventh inning at 3-3.
 
The Middleton double ignited a big inning out of the lineup that saw RS-freshman Adriana Erickson pull a home run to left field that gave the Patriots a 5-3 lead. For good measure, senior Brooke Sullivan added an extra insurance run with her second home run of the season to finalize the 6-3 seventh-inning lead.

"Great game, one that was a pitcher's duel through six innings in a well played game," head coach Joe Verbanic said. "We go on top, they come back to lead, then we fight and the hard work of this team shows through. Meghan Graham started it with a great at bat that led to a double, then the hot-hitting middle of our lineup opened a barrage."
 
Before the madness happened in the late innings, the two teams were deadlocked in a pitcher's duel with both starters putting up zeros through five full innings. Mason starter Bekah Ansbro no-hit the Explorers through those five scoreless innings, and finished with a no-decision, but added six more strikeouts to her season total.
 
The Patriots' first opportunity to break it wide open was in the top of the fifth. La Salle starter Reilly Gearhart was throwing a no-hitter herself until back-to-back singles by Curbeira and Madison Aker put an end to that, and loaded the bases. However, the first bases loaded opportunity of the afternoon peaked there as George Mason was unable to drive anyone in.
 
The same could not be said about the next bases loaded occasion. Sydnee Wells singled up the middle to bring home Middleton and put the Patriots up 1-0.
 
La Salle took the lead with a three-run home run to center, annulling the save opportunity that was originally intact with the pitching change earlier in the inning. The homer was one of four hits for the Explorers and produced all their Sunday afternoon runs off the swing of the bat.
 
The Green and Gold had one more inning to mount a comeback, and did so primarily with the three home runs. Curbeira, Erickson's and Sullivan's roundtrippers marked the highest amount of home runs in a game this season for the Patriots, never mind an inning. While Curbeira and Sullivan's hits over the fence went down as solo shots, Erickson drove in two on her swing of the bat for the go-ahead hit. Her at-bat came one batter after Middleton tied it up with her double.
 
Haellie Gordon bounced back by shutting the door on any La Salle comeback of their own in the bottom of the seventh, and locked the 6-3 win. The victory improved George Mason to 9-8 in Atlantic 10 play and elevated the team's successful stretch to seven conference victories in its last eight attempts.
 
NEXT ON THE DIAMOND
 
The Patriots will play their final non-conference and midweek games of the regular season on Wednesday with a doubleheader at Mount St. Mary's up in Emmitsburg, Md. The game one festivities will begin at 3 p.m. with game two starting approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one. George Mason will return to A-10 play the following weekend with its final home series of the season, hosting the Dayton Flyers.