George Washington University

April 5, 2008

Box Score

ARLINGTON, VA - George Washington (16-12, 5-3 A-10) scored two runs in the eighth and one in the ninth, but fell short in their attempt to rally, losing to Massachusetts, 6-3, in the second game of a three-game Atlantic 10 Conference series early Saturday afternoon at Barcroft Park.

UMass (7-11, 2-6 A-10) starter Bryan Leigh kept the GW bats in check for most of the game as he earned his second win of the season (2-2). Leigh allowed two runs and scattered five hits in seven innings of work. Aaron Smith pitched the final two frames and allowed one run on one hit.

GW freshman Eric Cantrell (Oakton, VA/Oakton) suffered his second loss in as many starts (3-3). Cantrell, who had allowed just five earned runs in his previous 23 innings of work, surrendered six runs on eights hits to the Minutemen in 5.2 laborious innings. In Cantrell's three starts made at GW"s home field, Barcroft Park, he has an ERA of 9.00. That number drops to just 1.96 in the three games he has pitched away from Arlington, VA, including his start made at Nationals Park.

The combination of sophomores Bobby Lucas (Baltimore, MD/Calvert Hall College HS), Ryan Lapointe (Somersworth, NH/Phillips Exeter Academy) and Faizan Choudhry (Langley, BC/Langley Secondary) pitched the final 3.1 innings and allowed just one hit.

UMass scored four runs in the top of the first inning, all with two outs, two of which came on home run hit by Jim Macdonald. The Minutemen added a run in the third on an RBI-groundout and then made it 6-0 when Andy Tuetken singled home a run in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, GW ended the shutout as they attempted to mount a comeback. Gavin Swanson (Reisterstown, MD/Calvert Hall College) led-off with single into center. Sophomore Tom Zebroski (Port Washington, NY/Paul Schreiber) followed with his third home run of the season, a blast to center field, cutting the UMass lead to 6-2.

Senior Andrew Abokhair (Ashburn, VA/Broad Run) doubled to start things off in GW's last-ups in the bottom of the ninth, advanced to third on a balk and then scored on a groundout, making it just 6-3 in favor of UMass. But a strikeout and a groundout ended the Colonials' threat, as the Minutemen were able to hang on for the win.

Abokhair paced the Colonials, finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored. Junior Tim Reeves (Cumming, GA/North Forsyth) was 0-for-4, ending his 12-game hit streak.

George Washington and Massachusetts play the rubber game of their three-game A-10 series Sunday, at 12:00 p.m.

- GW -