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Baseball Routs ODU to Remain Unbeaten in CAA Tournament
May 21, 2009
Wilmington, N.C. - The George Mason baseball team won its first two CAA Tournament games for the first time since 1995 as the top-seeded Patriots remained in the winners' bracket of the six-team double-elimination tournament, beating Old Dominion 11-5 on Thursday afternoon. Mason will play at 3:30 p.m. on Friday against second-seeded Georgia State which is also 2-0 in the tournament. A win would advance Mason to Saturday's championship game for the first time since 2003 while a loss would force Mason to play again at 7 p.m. on Friday against The winner of Friday's Noon contest between sixth-seeded Delaware and third-seeded UNCW. Live audio of Friday's game(s) will be available on GoMason.com. The Patriots (42-10) put nine runs on the board in the third as Spencer Wiggins and Ryan Soares each homered and had four RBI in the inning. Wiggins, who had three extra base hits in the game after coming into the contest with just five all year, tied his career high with five RBI in the contest as he was 3 for 5. Mike Modica (11-1), meanwhile, was masterful holding ODU (22-27) to just three runs on five hits and four walks in six and one-third innings while striking out six. He is one win shy of tying the Mason school record for wins in a season. Like Mason's opening round game with Delaware, a first-inning home run allowed the opposition to take an early lead. On Thursday, it was Jake McAloose hitting a solo shot to left-center with two outs to make it 1-0. Mason countered in the third with its biggest inning of the season. Things got started when Ryan Uphouse led off with a walk and scored on Wiggins' double to left-center. From there, the Patriots were able to take the lead without a hit as Chris Henderson walked, Scott Krieger was hit by a pitch and Justin Bour walked on four pitches to bring home Wiggins for a 2-1 lead. When the Patriots did finally get another hit, it was a huge one as Soares took a 3-1 pitch the other way to right and deposited on the other side of the fence for a 6-1 Mason lead. Later in the inning, Mark Hill singled, Uphouse walked again and Wiggins hit just his fourth career home run, this one a no-doubter to right to make it 9-1.
The Patriots had chances to add to the lead but stranded the bases loaded in the fourth and left a runner on in the sixth. In the seventh, Hill reached on an error to lead off the inning, went to second on a ground out and scored on a Wiggins two-out double down the rightfield line to make it 10-1. Modica got into trouble in the seventh, surrendering a leadoff double to Chris Buss followed by walks to Cameron Scott and Edgar Hernandez. With the bases loaded and no outs, Max Most brought home Buss with a sacrifice fly to make it 10-2. After Gerard Hall walked, Modica was lifted for reliever Ben Reade, who came on and walked McAloose on four pitches to make it 10-3. But Reade got Brett Harris to hit into a double play, ending the threat and the inning. In the eighth, Krieger walked, Bour singled to put runners on the corners and with one out, Shane Davis singled to left to make it 11-3. In the bottom of the frame, Josh Wright reached on an error to lead off the inning and went to third with one out but Reade got a pair of strikeouts to strand the runner. In the ninth, ODU used a two singles and a walk to load the bases and Wright singled to center with two outs to make it 11-5. |
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