Speed and power, respectively, have propelled the George Mason and Virginia baseball teams into the NCAA Tournament.
The Patriots, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade, have set a program record and are fourth nationally in stolen bases — paced by infielder South Trimble, a former standout at Cox High in Virginia Beach.
UVA has pounded opposing pitchers into submission with an offense that includes ACC Player of the Year Kyle Teel and Jake Gelof — who have combined for 34 home runs and 144 RBIs.George Mason plays overall No. 1 seed Wake Forest in a tournament opener at 7 p.m. Friday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, while the Cavaliers host Army at noon Friday. Double-elimination regionals continue through the weekend.
George Mason (35-24) is making its eighth NCAA Tournament appearance, and its first since 2014. The Patriots’ 35 victories under first-year coach Shawn Camp are the most since that 2014 team.Trimble, a senior, is tied for 25th nationally with 30 stolen bases; Derek Wood, a junior, has 29 swipes; Jordan Smith, a junior outfielder from Kellam High in Virginia Beach, has 22 steals.George Mason won 13 of its final 19 regular-season games — six by one run — and has won 18 of its past 24 games.
Mason won 13 of its final 19 games of the regular season, with six of the victories by one run.
The Patriots then won the Atlantic 10 Tournament with three elimination-game victories en route to the program’s second conference title in program history. George Mason played its way through the elimination bracket and won back-to-back games against St. Louis at The Diamond in Richmond to claim the A-10 tourney title.
Trimble leads the Patriots with a .322 batting average and has 16 doubles, three home runs and 37 RBIs. Smith is batting .293 with 13 doubles, seven home runs and 38 RBIs.
“We just bit down on the mouth guard and kept punching and punching and punching and it ended up working out,” Trimble said in after the championship game on gomason.com. “Great win, great win.”
“It means everything,” Trimble added. “This is why we put in so much work in the offseason.”
George Mason and Wake Forest are joined in their four-regional by Maryland and Northeastern, who play at 1 p.m. Friday in an opener at Wake Forest.
Virginia, meanwhile, hosts an NCAA Tournament regional in Charlottesville for the 10th time in coach Brian O’Connor’s 20 seasons. UVA, the national champion in 2015, is hosting a regional for the first time since 2016.
“It’s a great feather in our cap,” O’Connor said during an interview posted at virginiasports.com. “It says what the NCAA committee thinks of our team, and we’re proud of that. That said, the slate is wiped clean now. We’ve played the whole year to earn this host site and top-eight national seed. But the teams we’re playing this weekend don’t care about that.”
Virginia’s offense includes four players batting .369 or better led by Teel at .414. Teel has 12 home runs and 60 RBIs, and Gelof has 22 homers and 84 RBIs. O’Ferrall (.393), former Cox High standout Ethan Anderson (.377) and O’Donnell (.369) are among the other lineup stalwarts.
Oklahoma and ECU play in Charlottesville at 7 p.m. Friday in an opener in UVA’s four-team regional.
Josh Grosz, a junior righthander and another Cox High grad, has started 15 games for ECU, compiling a 4-2 record and 3.65 ERA with 79 strikeouts over 74 innings.
Charlottesville RegionalFriday’s gamesVirginia (45-12) vs. Army West Point (38-16), noon, ESPN+East Carolina (45-17) vs. Oklahoma (31-26), 7 p.m., ESPN2
Winston-Salem RegionalFriday’s gamesMaryland (41-19) vs. Northeastern (44-14), 1 p.m., ESPN+Wake Forest (47-10) vs. George Mason (34-25), 7 p.m., ESPN
