First-year Michael Anderson had two doubles and drove in three runs during game one of Friday’s doubleheader. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
Rhode Island baseball and George Mason faced off in a three game series over the weekend, the first of conference play, with the Patriots defeating the Rams in two out of three games.
Due to inclement weather, the weekend series was split up with a double header on Friday and a single game on Sunday.
In the first game of the series, the Patriots took down the Rams 7-6 in a back and forth battle. URI struck first, gaining a 1-0 advantage over GMU in the bottom of the first inning when second-year outfielder Eric Genther singled to right field to bring in fourth-year infielder Alex Ramirez.
The Patriots would come right back with a run of their own though, as second-year first baseman Reece Woody drove in second-year catcher Connor Dysktra on a fielder’s choice.
Rhode Island wouldn’t back down, as they scored again in the third inning to make it a 2-1 ball game.
In the sixth inning, the Patriots offense exploded for five runs, starting with third-year Jordan Smith hitting a sacrifice fly to bring in second-year Carsen Pracht. The five spot would be topped off by a Woody two-run home run to extend the George Mason lead to 6-2 in the sixth inning.
GMU struck again in the eighth as Dysktra hit a solo homer to bring the Patriots lead to five, a score of 7-2.
In the bottom half of the eighth inning, the Rams put up three runs of their own, as Anderson doubled to score two and fifth-year Billy Butler tacked on a two-bagger of his own to bring in Anderson. Going into the ninth inning, the George Mason lead had shrunk to 7-5.
With all the momentum, Rhody attempted to mount a comeback in the final inning. Down to their final three outs, the Rams put up another run when second-year Brody McKenzie grounded out to score third-year catcher Rob Butler. With no one on base, the Rams could not finish the comeback as Ramirez and fourth-year Addison Kopack flew out to end the game, with URI falling to GMU 7-6 in the first game of the series.
Billy Butler, when talking about the losses, described the team’s readiness to move on to the next series.
“We’re definitely going to flip the page,” Butler said. “We’re excited to move on.”
After the loss, the Rams came out firing in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader. URI scored three runs in the first inning, starting with Butler driving in Anderson on a single up the middle. Then, after a wild pitch, Genther scored from third base, also moving Butler to third. To wrap up the scoring, Nicholos Toro hit a ground rule double to bring in Butler from third base.
Rhode Island held their three run lead until the fifth inning, when Woody homered to right field scoring himself and Dykstra who singled to lead off the inning, cutting the lead to two, Rams leading 3-1.
The Rams tacked on two more runs to lead the Patriots 5-2 before the eighth inning. GMU added a run of their own when second-year Carsen Pracht drove in Woody on a fielder’s choice, cutting the URI lead to 5-3.
The eighth inning is where Rhody’s offense got hot, as they put up three more runs to extend their lead to 8-3, capped off when fourth-year Addison Kopack was hit by a pitch to bring in second-year Anthony DePino.
The Patriots would earn a run back in the ninth, but with the Rams up five runs it was not enough to mount a comeback as Rhode Island held on for an 8-4 victory, tying the series up at one game apiece.
When the series resumed Sunday for the deciding game after Saturday’s off day due to inclement weather, both teams were looking to earn the series victory.
In the second inning with the game tied 0-0, fourth-year Brett Stallings of George Mason singled to right to drive in third-year Derek Wood for the first run of the day.
In the sixth inning the Patriots put up four more, as Woody double drove in three runners to clear the bases and Jordan Smith tripled to right field to drive in Woody. GMU went up 5-0 in the sixth and never looked back.
The Patriots would hold on for the 5-0 win, taking home the series win and earning their 14th win of the year.
Pitcher Zach Fernandez pitched over three innings Sunday and commented on what needs to be better going forward.
“All the fundamentals,” Fernandez said. “It was a tough one today, move on to the next page and we’ll see.”
Butler also added on about the tough series and what they’re looking forward to.
“It’s a disappointing weekend,” Butler said. “Friday was a great day for us, this one just stings a little bit.”
Following the loss, the Rams faced off against Bryant on Tuesday in Kingston, a match they dropped 12-8, moving their record to 9-15. This weekend, they travel to New York to take on Fordham in the battle of the Rams, in search of their first conference series win.