Baseball Drops A-10 Opener to Mason

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George Mason's Anthony Montefusco threw seven innings of two-hit ball with 10 strikeouts, while Blaise Fernandez had three hits, as the Patriots downed the Fordham Rams, 7-4, in the Atlantic 10 opener for both schools at Spuhler Field in Fairfax, Va.
 
With the loss, Fordham falls to 7-10 overall, 0-1 in the league, while George Mason improved to 12-7 on the year, 1-0 in the Atlantic 10.
 
The game started as a pitcher's duel between Fordham's Cody Johnson and George Mason's Anthony Montefusco, as Johnson allowed just two runs over the first six innings, while Montefusco gave up one.
 
The Patriots scored two runs in the third to open the scoring.  With two outs and a runner on third, Montefusco helped his own cause with a double to right field, scoring Ray Toto from third.  George Mason then added a run on a Fordham error.
 
The score remained that way until the sixth, when Fordham cut the deficit in half.  Joseph Runco walked with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball.  Rob McCunney then dumped a double down the left field line, scoring Runco to make it a 2-1 game.
 
George Mason then exploded for a five-run seventh inning to take a 7-1 lead, highlighted by a two-run single by Toto and an RBI-single by Chris Cook.
 
Fordham got a run back in the eighth as McCunney delivered his second RBI-double of the game, scoring Runco from second base.
 
Then in the ninth, Fordham scratched two more runs across to cap the scoring.  David Judisky started the rally with a pinch-hit double with one out, and was pinch run for by Brendan Maghini.  Maghini then stole third and scored on an errant throw.  Mark Donadio then followed with a pinch-hit single and moved to second on a ground out.  Matthew Cianci then singled up the middle to score Donadio for the final run of the ball game.
 
Johnson (1-2) took the loss, pitching six-plus innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and tied a career-high with six strikeouts.  Jonathan Reich (1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER) and Shane McDonald (1 IP, 1 H) rounded out the pitching effort for the Rams.
 
At the plate, McCunney was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI, while Cianci and Donadio each had a hit and a run scored.
 
The same two teams will match-up for game two of this series on Saturday at 2:00 PM.