WILMINGTON, NC -- For the second time this season, senior pitcher Chad Kerfoot dominated George Mason University as the University of Delaware baseball team defeated the Patriots, 6-3, on Thursday afternoon in an elimination game in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship tournament.

Kerfoot struck out a career-high 10 batters in 8.2 innings and Ryan Jablonski and Adam Tsakonas each had two hits for the Blue Hens. In his first 16 innings aginst George Mason hitters this year, Kerfoot (right) allowed one run on only five hits and struckout 14.

For the third consecutive game in the tournament, the Blue Hens scored in the first inning. Jablonski led off with a double, but did not move as Brandon Menchaca and Alex Buchholz struck out. After Bryan Hagerich walked, the two baserunners took off on a double steal, and Mason catcher Jason Bour threw wildly to second, allowing Jablonski to score and Hagerich to move up to third. Patriot starter Mike Modica got Tsakonas to pop up to end the inning.

Bill Merkler led off the second inning with a double, but for the second consecutive inning the next two Blue Hen hitters struck out and a man on second was not able to advance. Kyle Davis then grounded out to third to end the inning with no runs scoring.

George Mason put runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the third. Chris Fournier’s sacrifice fly to right center brought home Dan Palumbo with the tying run. Palumbo struck out in his at-bat, but Kerfoot’s pitch was wild and he was able to reach first safely.

The Hens got a baserunner on with an error in the fourth, but continued to struggle mightily with runners on base, going 0-8 with runners on in the first four innings. Despite the offensive struggles, Kerfoot continued to be outstanding, striking out the side in the fourth. Modica struck out two more in the fifth to establish a new career-high with nine.

After being stymied by Modica in the first five innings, the Hens scored four in the sixth. Menchaca led off with a triple and scored on a single by Buchholz. Menchaca’s triple was the 23rd of his career, tying him for the CAA career record. After Buchholz was erased on a fielder’s choice, Tsakonas smoked a double to leftcenter that scored Hagerich from first and chased Modica from the game for closer and relief ace Jordan Flasher. Flasher struck out Merkler for the second out, but pinch-hitter Scott Shockley worked a walk. Ryan Engelhardt then inside-outted a single deep to the hole on the right side, but it was snagged by Fournier. Running hard all the way, Tsakonas scored from second and Shockley advanced to third on the throw home. With runners on the corners and two outs, Flasher had a 1-2 count on Davis when Engelhardt took off from first. Flasher’s pitch was high, and when Bour threw down to second, the smart Engelhardt just stopped in his tracks as Shockley broke for home. Shockley easily crossed home plate before Engelhardt was tagged out in a rundown, and the Hens led 5-1.

Delaware added another run in the eighth when Tsakonas hit his seventh home run of the season over the wall in right. The homer was only the second allowed this season by Flasher.

Kerfoot struck out Mike Laird to lead off the eighth making him the ninth pitcher in Delaware history to reach the 200 strikeout plateau in his career.

Mason got their first two runners on in the ninth before Kerfoot struck out Scott Krieger and then retired Justin Bour by the infield fly rule. However, the ball was dropped by Buchholz, and the runners advanced to second and third. Two consecutive singles brought in two runs and brought the tying run to the plate. Kerfoot was then removed for David Slovak who got pinch-hitter Chris Romanow to fly out to right to end the game.

Kerfoot picked up the win to move to 5-2 while Modica took the loss to fall to 4-7. Slovak recorded the last out to notch his 12th save.

With the win the Hens advance to Friday’s semifinal game against the loser of this afternoon’s matchup between Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion.

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