Baseball’s Tison owns longest hitting streak in Patriots history

Junior third baseman Brig Tison singled in his final at-bat Sunday against Towson to extend his hitting streak to 26 games, the longest streak in Mason history and the second-longest active streak in the NCAA. (Photo courtesy George Mason Baseball)

Brig Tison is pretty good with a baseball bat in his hands.

In his final at-bat Sunday against the Towson Tigers, Tison was down in the count with two strikes. This was not just any at-bat, however. Tison was riding a 25-game hitting streak, which tied the Patriots all-time record, set in 2000 by Eddie Jordan.

“It was my last at-bat so I started thinking about it a little bit and was kind of getting nervous, but it wasn’t too bad,” Tison said.

It was that calm and composed attitude that allowed Tison to single through the left side of the infield for a single, extending his streak to 26 games and breaking the all-time school record. He has now had at least one hit in every contest since the game on March 22 against Georgetown.

The 26 games is the second-longest active streak in the entire nation. He also leads the NCAA in total hits with 80, two ahead of Bryson Myles from Stephen F. Austin.

“It was pretty exciting,” he said. “I hadn’t been thinking about it for a long time, but once I got to 25 I started hearing about, it saw it on the website [GoMason], and people started joking around about it.”

Tison, a 5’11’’ junior third baseman out of Vienna, Va., actually credits his younger sister with originally bringing the streak to his attention. With his family living locally, which consists of his parents and two younger sisters, they attend as many games as possible.

“Really I didn’t start thinking about it ‘til my little sister said something about it, so she kind of pointed it out,” he said.

Tison is batting a team-leading .376 with 35 RBI and 40 runs, to go along with his whopping 80 hits and 26-game streak.

“Now that I’ve gotten past it, it’s kind of a relief,” Tison said about reaching the magical number of 26. “I’m glad it’s over with and I can go back to relaxing and playing, and not thinking about it during my at-bats.”

Tison hopes the streak continues, but he is satisfied with what he has already accomplished.

“I never really set the goal to break the record,” he said. “I mean, every time I go up to bat I want to get a hit, but I never set a number I wanted to get to.”

His success did not appear out of nowhere, however. He has been a steady source of production from the Patriots’ lineup for two seasons now, and is coming off a year in which he earned second-team All-CAA honors.

As a sophomore, he had a 17-game hitting streak, which was good for sixth in Mason history. He had one of the most productive seasons in school history with a batting average of .367 with 33 RBI and 45 runs scored. He also had 15 steals in just 16 attempts.

Despite his individual accolades, he remains focused on the team’s success.

“I’m always more worried about trying to win baseball games,” Tison said. “I always hope my individual performance will help my team win, but I’m never really thinking about I have to do really well, I just I hope I can help the team win games.”

Although Tison continues to produce, the team as a whole has struggled. The squad is 18-28-1 and just 5-19 in CAA action. They have just three wins in their last 12 games.

“This year hasn’t been going as well as we hoped for,” Tison said. “I just think if everybody continues to work hard we can only get better, and hopefully next year it will all pay off.”

Tison remains optimistic about next year’s team, and hopes to finish this season strong to develop some positive momentum heading into next season.

“I want to win a conference tournament and move on to another regional,” Tison said. “We did that freshman year and that was an awesome feeling.”

Tison will put his record-breaking streak on the line today as the Patriots host Coppin State at 3 p.m.