Lee Homers Twice in the Fourth as Baseball Sweeps George Mason

Sunday, March 31

Pitt Field

Noon

University of Richmond

14-9-1, 3-0

George Mason

11-15, 0-6

George Mason

Richmond

Photo by: Keith Lucas

Lee Homers Twice in the Fourth as Baseball Sweeps George Mason

03/31/2019 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Series Finale Highlights

RICHMOND, Va. – After falling behind 4-1 in the series finale with George Mason Sunday afternoon at Pitt Field, redshirt senior D.J. Lee (Frankfort, Ill.) led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run and ignited a rally for the Spider offense. Richmond went on to score eight runs in the bottom of the fourth, capped by Lee's second home run of the inning, a grand slam to go up 9-4. The Spiders went on to defeat the Patriots 10-7, sweeping the three-game series. In three games, the Spiders combined for 13 home runs and outscored George Mason 44-13. Richmond improves to 14-9-1 and 3-0 in A-10 play. George Mason falls to 11-15 overall and 0-6 in conference play.

The Spiders took advantage of 11 free passes in Sunday's win as the offense finished with eight hits. Lee led the team with a 3-for-4 game with five RBI, two home runs and scored twice. Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa.) continued his impressive performance at the plate with a solo home run before being intentionally walked twice. Justin Cook (Virginia Beach, Va.) added a 2-for-5 game and scored once. Tyler Plantier (Poway, Calif.) and Anthony Forte (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) each tallied an RBI hit in the contest.

Five pitchers combined for the win over George Mason. Redshirt senior Brendan McGuigan (Austin, Texas) got the start, going 3-plus innings, allowing two hits, four earned runs and struck out six hitters. Antonio Balducci (Mechanicsville, Va.) earned his first win of the season, tossing a full inning with a strikeout. Jacob Marcus (Malvern, Pa.) went the next 2.0 innings allowing two earned runs. Garrett Aylor (Austin, Texas) worked the seventh inning, allowing a couple hits and a run before Layne Looney (Dallas, Texas) picked up his fourth save of the season. Looney went the final 2.0 innings with a strikeout.

Richmond took the lead in the bottom of the first inning, taking advantage of four free passes. Back-to-back walks to start the game and another walk to Forte loaded the bases for Kyle Schmidt (Smithville, Texas) who lifted a fly ball to center field where it was caught, but was deep enough to score Jordan Schulefand (Parkland, Fla.) from third.

George Mason answered in the next half inning, taking advantage of four free passes of their own. With runners on first and second, Ryan Tassone singled to drive in the tying run. A bases loaded walk to Cam Reckling put the Patriots ahead 2-1 after an inning and a half.

The Patriots doubled their run total in the top of the fourth inning. A hit batter and a walk put two on before an RBI single from Logan Driscoll and a run scoring wild pitch put Mason up 4-1.

Lee ignited the Spiders' answer in the bottom of the frame. He led off with a solo home run to cut the lead down to two before a single and two hit batters loaded the bases. Sage Bruhl (Northbrook, Ill.) drew an 11-pitch walk to drive in a run and Plantier tied the game with a single down the right field line. Another hit by pitch loaded the bases and Lee left the yard for the second time in the frame, this time a grand slam to extend the lead to 9-4 Spiders. Schaub hit his fourth home run in three games in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 10-4.

George Mason cut the lead down to four after Tim Quinn drove in two runs with a single to left field in the top of the sixth and added another run in the seventh before Looney came on to close the door.

Richmond is back in action Tuesday night as it will hit the road and head to Harrisonburg for a nonconference matchup with the James Madison Dukes at 6 p.m.

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