George Mason aims to repeat run

Most sports fans are familiar with George Mason from the basketball team’s dramatic run to the Final Four during the 2006 NCAA tournament.

The Patriots, a No. 11 seed, knocked off Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State and Connecticut before losing to eventual national champion Florida.

Count this season’s GMU baseball team — USC’s first-round opponent Friday in the Greenville, N.C., Regional — as a group that would love to write a remake of that Cinderella story with a run to the College World Series.

“The one thing we do know is that anything is possible,” said GMU coach Bill Brown, in his 28th season leading the program. “We lived it here in 2006. I do allow myself to go there with those thoughts. Why not? This is what you’re trying to do.”

Senior left-hander Mike Modica, who will start the 3 p.m. game against the Gamecocks and pitcher Sam Dyson (8-4, 5.31 ERA), was a freshman that season and saw what it meant to the university and the community.

“We think about that all the time, and we still talk about it,” said Modica, who was friends with a few of the basketball players.

With an 11-1 record and 73 strikeouts in 82 innings, he would like nothing more than to get the Patriots headed in the right direction on the road to Omaha.

“That would be very cool,” Modica said. “The city of D.C. would love it. It’s already been a fun ride all year.”

It would be a shock to the college baseball world as well. The Patriots advanced to the postseason in 1985, ’88, ’92, ’93 and 2004, compiling a 1-10 record, beating Rider in 1992.

George Mason, however, did set a school record this season for wins (42) and winning percentage (.778). The Patriots, who claimed the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title, had to sweat out a bid to the NCAA playoffs after losing in the league tournament.

As the for the matchup with perennial SEC power USC, Brown wasn’t surprised.

“To play as a three seed, you’re going to get one of the better teams in the country, and South Carolina is one of the greatest programs year in and year out,” he said.

The Patriots are 0-6 against USC, with the most recent loss coming during the 2004 regular season. Modica knows he has his hands full with a team that hits a lot of home runs. He will have to keep the ball down in hitter-friendly Clark LeClair Stadium.

“I’ve grown up watching them play in the College World Series a couple of times. We know they’re going to be tough. They always have been,” Modica said.

But the Patriots have plenty of offensive weapons of their own. They are batting .322 as a team with 81 homers and are led by junior catcher Chris Henderson (.416, 14 HRs, 54 RBIs), senior outfielder Scott Krieger (.378, 20, 80) and junior first baseman Justin Bour (.336, 17, 65). The roster, filled with underclassmen, has been shooting for a moment like this one.

“We think we have a good shot against South Carolina and the rest of the teams in the regional,” senior outfielder Spencer Wiggins said. “We haven’t beaten USC before, but we’re capable of doing it. If we can get the first one under our belt, we have a chance to win the whole thing.”

Brown, a longtime friend and colleague of USC coach Ray Tanner, hopes his players don’t get too caught up in the moment.

“We’ll have a lot of energy,” he said. “We have to make sure it’s focused the right way.”

Sort of like the basketball team three years ago.

Reach White at (803) 771-8643.