The final weekend out of conference series is upon us, and the Pirates will be hosting the Patriots of George Mason. The Pirates have played their best baseball in weekend series this year as they sit at 13-1 in weekend games.
Like 13 of the 14 pervious weekend games all three of these will be played at Clark-LeClair Stadium. The 10th ranked Pirates are coming off a tough 2-1 loss on Wednesday to number 18 Campbell, and hope to have better luck at the plate with runners on base as they left 11 on in the midweek contest. The Pirates will start Trey Yasavage on Friday night who is the reigning AAC pitcher of the week after throwing 7.1 scoreless innings last Friday vs Missouri St.
The Patriots come into this one with a record of 11-9 and are coming off a 16-10 Loss to William & Mary on Tuesday whom the Pirates defeated earlier this season. Pirate catchers Justin Wilcoxen and Ryan McCrystal may have their work cut out for them as the Patriots have stole 76 of 86 bags this year. Of course the Pirate pitchers will have to do a good job keeping the Patriots off the base paths which hasn’t been easy this year as they have an OBP of .385.
This will be the 1st meeting between the two programs since 2016 when the Pirates pulled off a 2-game mid week sweep of the Patriots. Although the last time the two programs met none of the current players were on the roster the programs are familiar foes. The teams have met 74 times in their history with the Pirates having the edge 44-30.
The Pirates look to end the out of conference weekend part of the schedule on a high note over the next 3 days as the Pirate Nation is sure to give a warm welcome to George Mason.