RICHMOND, Va. – Sixth-seeded George Mason earned a 5-4, 11-inning upset win over No. 3 overall Dayton in the first round of the 2023 Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship Tuesday night at The Diamond.
The Patriots (30-24) advance to face No. 2 Davidson at 3 pm on Wednesday in the second round of the winner's bracket. Meanwhile, the Flyers (24-33) fall into the consolation bracket and will play Thursday at 11 am.
Mason took the lead in the 11th on an RBI single by Evan Blanchard that scored Brett Stallings. Stallings, the third batter of the inning, earned a two-out walk after a pair of leadoff strikeouts. Nolan Lamere proceeded to end a bases-loaded, no outs Dayton threat with a strikeout, an infield fly and a game-ending swinging strikeout, securing his first save of the year.
The Flyers witnessed some late-game heroics to force the extra innings and were in position to win in walk-off fashion. Trailing by two runs entering the ninth, Dayton’s Mason Dobie hit a leadoff solo homer to right field to pull UD within one. Hits by Paxton Tomaini and Matt Maloney followed, forcing the Patriots to make a pitching change to Christian Mracna. Maloney’s single pushed Tomaini to third, and a passed ball tied the game and allowed Jose Martinez, pinch running for Maloney, to pull within 90 feet of victory. But Mracna, facing no outs, worked his way out of the jam, getting a strikeout, and then grabbing Omar Daniels’ squeeze bunt to throw Martinez out at the plate. The on-base threat gone, Mracna (4-1), who earned his fourth win of the season, ended the inning on a strikeout.
Dayton had opened the scoring with two runs in the first on a RBI single by Castillo that plated Calero and a Dobie double that scored Pujols. The Patriots took those runs back in the third, with Alex Knapp scoring on a bases-loaded double play, immediately followed by a wild pitch that scored Blanchard, who had moved to third on the previous double play.
Knapp scored again in the eighth on a groundout to first by Derek Wood, giving Mason a one-run lead, which became a two-run lead one batter later when a balk scored Carsen Pracht from third. Those two runs became pivotal when Dayton tied the game in the ninth.
Mracna threw two complete innings and allowed just one hit with three walks and two strikeouts in the win. Lamere struck out two in one inning of work with no hits for the save. Parker Bard (2-3) took the loss, allowing just one hit and one run with two walks and two strikeouts.
Dobie, Maloney and David Pedanou each had two hits for Dayton and Dobie led the Flyers with two RBI. Mason scattered seven hits across seven players, with Blanchard and Wood each collecting an RBI.