RICHMOND, Va. – George Mason pitchers impressively combined to keep the hot bats of No. 3 ovearll Dayton quiet to earn a 3-2 victory in the Atlantic 10 Championship consolation bracket final Friday at The Diamond, earning the sixth-seeded Patriots a berth in the title game against No. 4 Saint Louis Saturday, first pitch slated for noon.
 
Kyle Smith proved spectacular across 7.1 innings, allowing eight hits with one run, one walk and one strikeout. He had help from Chad Gartland in relief, who earned his second save of the season, tossing 1.2 hitless innings with a walk and two strikeouts, including a game-ending strikeout looking with the potential winning run standing on second base.
 
The Flyers (26-34) entered the elimination game having scored 34 runs in three A-10 Championship games through the course of the week, including back-to-back games with 15 runs. The Flyers also had a tournament-high 40 hits across those three games.
 
George Mason (32-25) carried a 1-0 lead into the seventh, and got a pair of insurance runs when Carsen Pracht drove in Alex Knapp with an RBI single and South Trimble pressed Pracht across with a sacrifice fly.
 
The insurance runs proved critical in the eighth, when Dayton's Dobie RBI double scored Keagan Calero. Smith then exited with Dobie on, and reliever Nolan Lamere plunked the next two batters. Gartland, the A-10 Pitcher of the Year, replaced Lamere, allowing one of three baserunners to score on a wild pitch. before inducing a flyout to end the Flyer rally.
 
Dobie was the offensive leader for UD with three hits, a run scored and an RBI. Carlos Castillo and Calero were also 2-for-3 for the Flyers.
 
Nick Wissman (4-2) was the pitcher of record for Dayton, but he had a strong outing as well, surrendering just one run on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts. Wissman’s one run allowed was the game’s opening score, coming when the Patriots’ Jordan Smith pushed Trimble across in the third inning on a groundout to third. Jordan Smith was the only Mason player to collect more than one hit.
 
Saturday’s championship will be a rematch of the 2018 title game, which Saint Louis won 5-0. Mason is the lowest-seeded team to reach the final since Davidson, also a six seed, who won in 2017. As the team coming from the consolation bracket, George Mason must win twice to earn the championship title and the NCAA Regional automatic bid.