The thought is unappealing to opposing pitchers who will face them each four or five times a game. But for George Mason University baseball coach Bill Brown, having Luke Willis and Brandon Gum back at the top of the Patriots’ lineup this season yields optimism for a team that graduated six starting position players and two pitchers who combined for over 220 innings last year.
“That’s what is going to make us go, with Luke and Brandon and the types of skills that they can bring to the table,” said Brown, who is in his 34th season at the helm of the program. “Luke is our catalyst, and Brandon is the perfect guy to hit behind him.”
For a repeat of last year’s run, which included an Atlantic-10 Conference championship in their first year in the league and the program’s seventh NCAA Tournament appearance under Brown, Mason will lean heavily on the first two hitters in their lineup.
Willis (pictured), a senior center fielder from Oakton High School in Vienna who transferred from Coastal Carolina to be closer to home after his father passed away two years ago, hit .302 with a team-high 21 stolen bases last year. Along the way, the leadoff man pounded opposing pitchers in the conference tournament, hitting .667 (10-for-15) with four walks, two runs and three RBI over the four games en route to Most Outstanding Player honors.
Gum, the junior shortstop from Woodbridge High School, hit a team-high .307 with 27 RBI in 2014, and entered this season with over 100 collegiate starts already under his belt.
The Patriots, picked third by the league’s coaches in the preseason poll, will need similar performances by the duo again this spring.
“That being our first year in the conference was a huge shock to a lot of people that we were even able to be in that game,” Gum said of Mason’s 4-0 run through the tournament and 3-2 win over Virginia Commonwealth in the championship game. “But we felt the entire year that we played well against the teams in our conference, especially the upper-tier teams like St. Louis and VCU and St. Joe’s, so we felt pretty good about it.
“Everybody wants to go back, obviously that was a heck of an experience.”
The two of them have picked up where they left off, with Willis hitting .360 with four stolen bases and Gum hitting .357 entering the Patriots’ weekend slate of games against Delaware, Canisius and Morehead State in Lexington, S.C.
The results, however, reflect a young team trying to find itself after losing three all-conference performers in second baseman Chris Cooke and pitchers Anthony Montefusco and Jared Gaynor. Mason lost a 4-3 decision to Ohio State to open the season before beating Kansas State, 5-0, but has since dropped four straight.
“We have a lot of new players in the lineup. But what we did last year, the way we played and how the team together is still embedded in the program,” Willis said. “And I see a lot of the qualities in last year’s team in this year’s team.”
The Patriots are breaking in freshmen at second base in Michael Smith (South County), who has also started hot and is hitting .357 entering the weekend, and Brady Acker in left field. Acker has started each of Mason’s first six games, and Smith has appeared in five and stared four. In addition, rookie Trevor Kelly will see plenty of time at first base when two-way player Jake Kalish is on the mound and freshman Tyler Nelin has shared the catching duties with senior incumbent Ray Toto.
Junior Kent Blackstone, another local product from Marshall High School who transferred in from New Mexico State, has assumed the third base responsibilities.
“We have some guys I think who can jump in, and ultimately will be able to play at a high level. But it’s an adjustment period also,” Brown said. “Three of the four up the middle are back, and that’s a huge plus. It helps that we can span some other guys out around the diamond and let them settle in.”
Sophomore Tyler Zombro, an A-10 All-Rookie Team selection last year, as well as the left-handed Kalish and John Williams, a senior from Battlefield High School in Haymarket, will be the Patriots’ weekend starters. Williams earned conference Pitcher of the Week honors after throwing 5.2 scoreless innings in the win over Kansas State, but the staff as a whole has struggled to a 6.53 earned run average and has allowed 69 hits over 51 innings thus far.
Despite the early struggles on the mound, Brown is excited about his rotation and what he feels will be a deep bullpen.
“We’re excited about how we look moving forward with what looks like a really solid weekend rotation with Tyler Zombro, John Williams and Jake Kalish. All three of those guys could be No. 1’s, quite honestly.”
In seeking his first back-to-back NCAA appearances since 1992-93, Brown will look to a roster littered with talent from Northern Virginia. The Patriots have 14 players who attended high school in the area, including four - Willis, Gum, junior David Belt (Flint Hill) and redshirt sophomore pitcher Tyler Tobin (West Springfield) - who transferred from other schools.
“It really did kind of fall into our lap,” Brown said of the transfer additions. “They each had special circumstances that brought them back home, and in Luke’s case, a tragic circumstance. And it certainly wasn’t by design. With transfers, it’s a really fine line. Lots of times, they’re moving around because they have issues, problems. Nothing like that’s happening with these guys, and they’ve come home for all the right reasons and we’re excited to have them in the program. They’re fabulous, fabulous additions.”
Brown hopes the recent trend of local talent staying home and attending Mason continues. “It’s what we want to do, quite honestly. Our recruiting philosophy starts with trying to keep the best players from Northern Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area at George Mason.
“It’s really exciting to look up and see that, because these are really talented baseball players who just happen to be from our area.”
Photo courtesy of George Mason Athletics
