It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but George Mason’s pitching staff has had some issues on the back end. Aside from the four starters and closer Ryan Ricci, the rest of the staff has been questionable at best.
Gearing up for their fifth game of the 2018 Atlantic 10 Baseball Tournament, the Patriots are nearly out of options. All four of their starters have done their job getting the Patriots to this point and they have done it extremely well. Playing Saint Louis at least once, twice if they want to raise the trophy, without their top hurlers will be a tough task on Saturday in Arlington.
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Behind Zach Mort, Bryce Nightengale, Jared DiCesare, and Brian Marconi, who is left to start?
Well it will not be easy. None should be available to start; perhaps Mort is available in a relief appearance if the situation is dire, but I’m no trainer or coach.
“We probably have a good idea who we’re going to throw out there, but it’s just going to be everybody that we have available. We’ll kind of going to take stock when we wake up tomorrow morning, see who’s available, see who’s feeling well,” head coach Bill Brown said.
Right handed freshman James Price is the only other Patriot to start this season. In four starts and eight relief stints, he has a 2-0 record and 5.96 ERA. Both of his victories came when he threw the first pitch for the Green and Gold. They came against UMBC on March 28 and at James Madison on April 18, he also pitched a no-decision start against Towson on May 2.
In all likelihood, based on what Brown said, he will get the nod in the first game. Quite the challenge in only of the fifth start in his career going up against the No. 1 seed in the conference with your team’s life on the line.
Here are the remaining pitchers that have not pitched already in the tournament:
#9 Ryan Miles (0-0), five app, 7.36 ERA
#6 Daniel Brooks (0-0), four app, 9.00 ERA
#38 Michael Yuille (0-1), 10 app, 14.00 ERA
#16 Thomas Bradley (0-0), four app, 14.54 ERA
#31 Matthew Yost (0-1), four app, 15.00 ERA
Except for Yost, all of these players are freshmen. The top pick from that selection as a sixth starter would be Michael Yuille.
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Now here who has played and should still be available:
#46 Jonathan Ostroff (0-0), three app, 2.08 ERA – 0.2 IP on Friday night
#25 Ryan Ricci (4-2), 25 app, 2.38 ERA – 2.1 IP on Thursday, 0.0 IP on Friday day
#30 Austin Cabone (0-0), 11 app, 4.50 ERA – 2.0 IP on Wednesday
#23 Garett Driscoll (0-2), 16 app, 6.14 ERA – 1.0 IP on Friday day
#28 Tim Turner (0-4), 13 app, 6.88 ERA – 1.1 IP on Friday day
#10 Saul Aguilera (0-0), 10 app, 9.35 ERA – 1.1 IP on Friday night
Factor in those guys and I’m leaning as Austin Cabone being a brief starter in what would be the second game on Saturday. Switching out pitchers from there on two-to-three inning stretches would be the best bet. Typically Aguilera and Driscoll are the long inning eaters but lack some command and will have pitched the day before.
Long story short, if Mason can get to the second game on championship Saturday it will not be to the tune like Mason has seen throughout this series from their starters. A pitching by committee effort will be needed.
If the Patriots get through this Saturday after this pitching scenario, this will be quite the accolade for Brown’s illustrious Mason career.
