GMU baseball, softball end regular seasons

By Justin Creech For the News & Messenger
Published: May 4, 2008

After prolonged periods of solid play, both the George Mason University baseball and softball teams slipped in their respective series this past weekend.

The baseball team traveled to Wilmington, N.C., on Friday for Game 1 of a three-game series against the nationally ranked University of North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks. Riding a four-game winning streak, the Patriots pounded out 13 hits in ending the Seahawks' 21-game winning streak with a resounding 13-3 victory.

The win was Mason's season-high fifth in a row.

Sophomore catcher Chris Henderson paced George Mason with a career-high five RBI, including a single in the top of the second that scored the game's first run. The Patriots also received strong contributions from Ryan Soares, Ryan Uphouse, Brent Weiss and Mark Hill. Soares had his first career multi-home run game, Uphouse went 3 for 5, while Weiss went 2 for 4 and Hill contributed two RBI.

Red-shirt senior Dan Jaycox was solid on the mound allowing three runs on nine hits while striking out seven in nine innings of work.

The Patriots scored runs in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings to break open a 9-2 lead. Soares' first home run came in the top of the fourth to give Mason a 5-1 lead. His second home run came in the top of the ninth for the game's final run.

Saturday, however, did not turn out as successful. The Patriots managed just five hits, with their first not coming until the top of the fourth inning, while Wilmington managed 10 in a 10-0 romp.

The game fell apart for George Mason (25-22, 15-9) in the bottom of the sixth inning. Trailing just 1-0 and with one out, Modica allowed three consecutive Wilmington batters to get on base, the second by virtue of a walk and the third was hit by a pitch.

Shawn Griffith replaced Modica and promptly allowed a run on a sacrifice bunt by Wilming-ton's Mike Rooney to make it 2-0 Seahawks. A Bobby Leeper double made it 4-0 and three consecutive walks by Griffith pushed the lead to 5-0, effectively ending Griffith's day.

TJ O'Grady finished the inning, but not before allowing a bases clearing double to Nate Hall that capped the seven-run inning.

The loss ended the Patriots' season-high five-game winning streak.

After winning seven of eight games from Apr. 13-22, the George Mason softball team ended the season with six consecutive losses, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Hofstra Pride this past weekend in Hempstead, N.Y.

After dropping Friday's doubleheader 4-0 and 9-1, the Patriots were no-hit in Sun-day's season finale by Hofstra's Kayleigh Lotti. Lotti struck out 12 Mason batters.

There was one bright spot for the Patriots (19-32, 6-14) this past weekend. Ashli Breau, who has been re-writing the Mason record books all season, set another mark on Sunday as she finished with the highest single season batting average in school history.

Breau's finished the season with a .421 batting average, besting the previous high of .398 set by Ashley Purcell in 2004. Breau also finished the season with a .752 slugging percentage, which bested Nakoma Sours' previous high by nearly 150 points.