March 5, 2008

The George Mason baseball team hit the road on Wednesday afternoon, traveling to Richmond to take on the Spiders in a mid-week non-conference tilt, and despite putting eight runs on the board, the Patriots were unable to come home with a win as Richmond beat Mason, 13-8.

Richmond scored four in the third and six in the fourth and held off five late-inning Mason runs. Only two of Mason's 14 hits were for extra bases while five of Richmond's 14 were for extra bases. The Spiders also had seven steals while Mason had none.

Sean Swetnam took the loss for Mason, allowing seven runs in one and one-third innings. Jack Zeltner started the game allowing two runs in two innings while Jeremy Haas allowed three earned runs in two and two-third innings. Benji Kagan pitched two perfect innings to keep Richmond in check while Mason tried to rally. Ryan Soares had four hits for the second-straight day while Chris Henderson had three hits and Dan Palumbo had three RBI.

Down 2-0, Mason scored three times in the second to take a lead. Justin Boar singled and went to third on a Soares double. Bour scored on a Palumbo single to make it 2-1. A wild pitch moved Palumbo to second and plated Soares. Mark Hill reached on a scoring error and Ryan Uphouse singled to load the bases. Spencer Wiggins followed with a sacrifice fly for a 3-2 lead. The lead didn't last long as Richmond scored four runs in the bottom of the third to make it 6-3 and then doubled their run total in the fourth.

Mason's run in the sixth came when Soares doubled and scored on a Palumbo single up the middle. In the seventh, Henderson led off with a single up the middle and with one out, Bour and Soares singled to bring home Henderson. Aaron Tenny walked to load the bases and Palumbo's sacrifice brought home Bour. Hill followed with an RBI single to make it 13-7.

The Patriots' final run came in the eighth when Wiggins singled, went to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Henderson single and eventually scored on a Soares sacrifice fly. The Patriots will return to action this weekend when they open Colonial Athletic Association play with three games against VCU. The two teams will meet at Spuhler Field at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.