Baseball Plays Host to La Salle, No. 27 George Mason this Week at Shipley Field
4/20/2009 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2009
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Coming off last weekend's series victory against the Duke Blue Devils, the University of Maryland baseball team remains home at Shipley Field this week for a pair of non-conference games against La Salle and No. 27 George Mason.
The La Salle Explorers visit College Park Tuesday for a 5 p.m. non-conference showdown, the first-ever game between the two schools. The Explorers are currently 15-19 with a 7-12 road record. La Salle was in the area last weekend for a three-game series at George Washington in which the Explorers won the last two to take the series.
La Salle is hitting .301 as a team, led by TJ Chism's team highs in average (.347), home runs (8) and RBIs (35). John Malloy and Justin Handler are also potent offensive threats as both are batting .344 coming into Tuesday's meeting.
The George Mason Patriots are having one of the best seasons in school history and are currently ranked 27th in the nation by "Collegiate Baseball," while receiving votes in other polls.
The Patriots are currently 30-7 overall and sit atop the Colonial Athletic Association standings at 11-4.
Three George Mason sluggers have already reached double digits in home runs, led by Scott Krieger's 14. Krieger also leads the team in slugging percentage (.801) and RBIs (54), while batting .390. Chris Henderson leads the Patriots in hitting at .403 and has hit 10 homers and driven in 36 runs. Justin Bour has 13 home runs and 41 RBIs.
George Mason leads the all-time series, 20-19, and won this year's previous meeting in Fairfax, Va. The Terps led that game by two runs late, but the Patriots rallied to score three runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to win.
Maryland is 18-21 entering the week. Junior A.J. Casario and senior Mike Murphy are the top offensive threats for the Terps. Casario leads the team in batting (.340), on-base percentage (.430), runs (35), hits (50) and total bases (83). Murphy leads the team in slugging percentage (.587), RBIs (34), doubles (12) and home runs (8).
Live radio coverage of all Maryland baseball games is available free on the Internet at WMUCSports.com.
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