Baseball wins in walk-off Saturday against VCU, loses the series

Redshirt junior Jeremy Haas and his George Mason Patriots rallied to a 5-4 win Saturday over VCU, but lost Friday and Sunday's contests. (John Powell)

On a cold Saturday afternoon at Spuhler Field, the Mason Baseball team rallied back from a 4-0 deficit to win on a walk-off by Blaise Fernandez against the Rams of VCU, winning by a count of 5-4.

Fernandez led the Patriots going 2-5 with two triples, one RBI and a run in the second game of the three-game series. The Patriots dropped the first game 3-2.

Mason wouldn’t have had the chance to win Saturday’s game had it not been for the pitching of starter Ryan Pfaeffle. Pfaeffle went eight strong innings, striking out four, while only giving up four hits and walking two.
Pfaeffle ran into trouble in the first, giving up four runs on four hits. However, he came back to retire the next 22 of 24 VCU hitters. The two hitters to reach were via walks, as Pfaeffle was mixing his pitches all day to keep the VCU hitters off-balanced.

After going down 4-0 in the first, Mason got two runs back in the third. Jeremy Haas led off the inning with a walk, and was moved along by a single from Danny Lyons. Haas and Lyons were sacrificed to second and third, respectively, by a Nick Allen bunt.

Following the sacrifice, Chris Cook drove in Haas with a groundout to second base. With two outs and Lyons waiting at third, Brig Tison stroked a liner up the middle to drive in Lyons and make the game 4-2.
From that point on it turned into a pitching duel as Pfaeffle and VCU starter Kyle Haynes made quick work of both team’s offenses.

Then came the bottom of the eighth.

Fernandez led off the inning with a triple to deep right-center. Fernandez was followed by Zack Helgeson who was hit-by a pitch, forcing the Rams to pull Haynes and go to their bullpen. Haas greeted the Rams’ Ryan Farrar with a squeeze bunt that brought in Fernandez and pulled Mason within one run, 4-3. Following a ground out to first by Danny Lyons, Nick Allen lined a 3-2 pitch to right to bring in Helgeson and tie the game at 4.

Mason pulled Pfaeffle to start the ninth and brought in Brandon Kuter. Kuter made quick work of the first two Rams hitters, forcing them into ground outs. Following a walk and a single to left field by the Rams, Kuter forced the next Ram’s hitter into a ground out to second to end the threat. Kuter’s final line read: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, and 0 K.

Then came the dramatic bottom of the ninth. Tison led off the inning with a single through the left side of the infield. Dan Schaefferman followed Tison with a deep drive to center, but the Ram’s centerfielder made a great catch to keep Tison on first.

Following Schaefferman, Shane Davis walked to set up the Fernandez dramatics. Working the count to 3-2, Fernandez drove a fastball to deep-center that looked destined to clear the wall in center. Just missing a home run, Tison quickly circled the bases to bring home the winning run and set off a celebration at third base by the Mason team.

VCU went on to win the series by taking down the Patriots Sunday afternoon by a final of 15-10. Mason is now 14-19-1 on the year, 3-12 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while VCU is 13-17, 6-6. The Patriots return to action Tuesday at UMBC at 6 p.m., before hosting Navy on Wednesday at 3 p.m.