Articles by: sonya hudson

 

• Spring Sports Overview

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 2:03 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Baseball Not expected to follow last season’s explosion on offense, the George Mason University baseball team has found ways to remain competitive despite being picked to finish sixth in the Colonial Athletic Association in the preseason poll. The Patriots have belted a total of 30 home runs thus far, well short of their 82 home runs from last season, but the team has been a threat on the base paths, posting a .419 on-base percentage, leading to 336 total runs scored. Senior Ryan Soares leads the conference with 23 doubles and is among the top three in batting average and RBIs. Soares is one of the team leaders with six home runs in his solid final season. The team’s pitching leads the conference with a 4.79 ERA. Senior Kevin Crum is the ace of the staff with a 5-1 record and a 3.81 ERA. Redshirt freshman Chris O’Grady has filled in nicely in the rotation, leading the team with a 3.57 ERA. O’Grady, who garnered the CAA Rookie of the Week award recently, has a 3-0 record in his first season. Softball The softball team has overcome its shaky 1-5 start to the season […]

   

• Powell's Playbook: Movin' On

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 1:58 pm Comments are Disabled

  By John Powell, Asst. Sports Editor I’ve been hard on some teams this year and I’ve been easy on others. And I’ve let readers know a little too much about my NASCAR obsession. In the world of George Mason University sports though, we are wrapping up the spring season, the tail end of this year’s sports. So let’s take a look at what happened this year and what to look forward to in the future. The first thing that comes to mind is the women’s soccer team and the women’s tennis team, who both enjoyed turnaround years. On the women’s soccer side, the team graduated nine seniors and won nine more games than the previous year. The women’s tennis team improved from last year’s mark of 9-12. While the team seemed to have problems facing Drexel in the conference championship, it will be looking to beat them next year, especially if they meet in the tournament again. I’ve been singing the praises of the track and field team. The women’s team finished second in the conference championship, and the men’s team won the championship. How can a team possibly improve on that? By winning it again, and continuing its dominance […]

   

• Who says you can’t go home: Corner infielders have been a huge impact on the young team

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 1:57 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Freshman Megan Blank is not the only country music fanatic on the diamond as she walks up to the plate to her favorite artist Miranda Lambert’s song “Gunpowder & Lead.” Sophomore Katie Rynex, a self-described “country girl” herself, has been another key addition to the George Mason University softball team’s corner infield pair. Rynex, who entered the weekend with a .247 batting average, leads the Patriots with seven doubles and 22 RBIs. Primarily as the cleanup hitter, Rynex plays a number of roles on offense, but her main role is to execute the task. “I’m just worried about getting the job done,” said Rynex. “When I’m leading off, my job is to get on base; if there are runners on, my job is to get a base hit. In addition to producing runs with the bat, Rynex also helps create runs with her speed. Rynex is one of the team’s top base stealers with five stolen bases out of six attempts. “I love the fact that [Head Coach Joe Verbanic] has a lot of confidence in me [to steal bases],” said Rynex. “It’s all about using our eyes and knowing what to do.” Graduating […]

   

• Sports in a minute

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 1:55 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Mason trounces the Terrapins The George Mason University baseball team walked over the Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Md. in their 20-6 dominating win on Tuesday. Mason improved to 27-12 overall while the Terrapins fell to 15-29. The four-hour marathon has been the longest game for Mason thus far, but the team did not leave without winning its fourth consecutive game and 10 of its last 11. Senior shortstop Ryan Soares went deep twice, knocking in a total of six RBIs in the game. Soares started the scoring with a two-run blast in the first inning and smashed another home run in the Patriots’ seven-run inning. The Patriots totaled 19 hits and eight walks to produce 20 runs. Mason reached the 20-run plateau for the fourth time this season. Leading 7-1 after five innings, Mason started to pull away in the next two frames with four runs in the sixth inning and seven runs in the seventh inning. In the sixth, redshirt junior first baseman Dan Palumbo, who went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, doubled in two runs. Sophomore right fielder Dan Schafferman followed with a two-run single. In the seventh, the Patriots got the […]

   

• Battle of the aces: Vote Lincecum and vote Halladay

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 1:53 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor; Chris DeMarco, Staff Writer From 2001 through 2005, the American League Cy Young award was all about getting wins as five different 20-win pitchers took home the hardware. But this is not necessarily the case when searching for the top pitcher in baseball. Last year, San Francisco Giants ace pitcher Tim Lincecum picked up 15 wins, recording a lower win total than Scott Feldman of the Texas Rangers, as well as Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders of the Los Angeles Angels; Lincecum was by and large a much better pitcher than any of them or any pitcher in the National League. Beating the St. Louis Cardinals’ duo for the NL Cy Young, Lincecum established himself as the NL’s top pitcher for the second straight year. The competition is much stiffer this year with Roy Halladay filling in for the Philadelphia Phillies, Dan Haren continuing his solid pitching with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies’ flamethrower Ubaldo Jimenez, who already tossed a no-hitter in the first month of the season, working his way into the mix of NL elites. In the past three years, Lincecum was valued at 17.2 WAR, the highest in all of […]

   

• Mason blanks GW: Dudley jacks first home run of 2010 season

  Sports May 3, 2010 at 1:52 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor Sophomore second baseman Tori Dudley did not fear falling behind two strikes early in the count. Instead, she found an opportunity to put some good wood on the ball, hitting her first home run as the George Mason University softball team topped the George Washington Colonials 9-0 to sweep the season series on Wednesday at the George Mason Softball Complex. The Patriots moved to 17-22 on the season while the Colonials dropped to 5-36 overall, losing their 11th straight game. Mason had a sluggish 1-5 start, but after going through ups and downs, the team concluded its non-conference schedule with an even 12-12 record. Mason wrapped up with a 14-16 home record. “We knew going into this [season] that we were a young ball club, and there were going to be some growing pains early,” said Head Coach Joe Verbanic. “What I really love is the way that they have learned and embraced working hard and learning the game; they’re really starting to put it together.” After starting slowly, the Patriots tallied their first hit in the third inning as Dudley sent a 1-2 pitch to straightaway center field and over the 225-feet sign, […]

   

• In Bed With Billy: Reconnecting to the past for the sake of a future

  Lifestyle May 3, 2010 at 1:16 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Billy Curtis, Sex Columnist Every now and again it’s a good idea to take a moment to stop and evaluate the good in your life. We often forget to do this, and in the process can sometimes disregard what is important to us in the long run. Goals, friendships, relationships: all can be lost as quickly as they were found. But life is funny. Connections are constantly changing; one minute you’re dating someone, the next you are enemies and never speak again — or so you think. The many roles people play in our lives are important, and it’s also important to remember that no matter what happens between anyone you encounter in this life, it’s for a reason. I had been asking myself questions about the ties I had to the people who were important to me presently, to the people I had lost in the past and to the endless possibilities of what the future may hold. This got me contemplating some reconnections, along with some failed ones, a friend of mine and I had been going through recently. Caroline and I had been friends since we were introduced in college, and after graduating, she moved back […]

   

• In Bed with Billy: Oral sex and communication: What closed mouths are missing

  Lifestyle April 26, 2010 at 2:12 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Billy Curtis, Sex Columnist Throughout the decades, it has been given many names: giving head, eating out, going down, carpet munching and, of course, the blow job — just to name a few. Whatever you may call it, oral sex is one of the most pleasurable experiences out there; why do you think it’s considered such a great preamble to intercourse? Foreplay and oral sex can be the best way to get your blood pumping in all the right places for longer nights of bliss, and an even better way to get off while not worrying about pregnancy. Personally, oral sex, whether as foreplay or just the act itself, is definitely an enlightening activity, and certainly an act I enjoy thoroughly — with the right person. But not everyone is good at giving head, and like any other skill attained in this world, to become proficient in this art form one simply needs guidance and practice. Like most first sexual experiences, oral sex can be a little intimidating, but the best way to solve this problem is with communication or even getting a critique of your performance. The only way to get this information is by asking your partner, […]

   

• Going Nuts for Testival: Annual festival educates and entertains students

  Lifestyle April 26, 2010 at 2:07 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Evan Benton, Staff Writer Testival, arguably George Mason University’s best and most popular celebration of testicles, returns Thursday for another bout of ball-grabbing and free T-shirts. Sponsored by the Office of Alcohol, Drug and Health Education, University Life and Phi Sigma Kappa, Testival has been going strong for the past several years and manages to support a very important cause while keeping it all tongue-in-cheek with their catchy slogan, “Check your nuts.” The festival for testicles will feature such nutty games as Guess that Nut, Balls to the Wall, Testicle Toss, Whack-a-Ball and Balls Bingo. Exams will be demonstrated but not administered by the Student Nurses’ Association, and those who need practice can use the effective but disgusting Ball Bags, which are replicated testicles in bags of gel complete with those pesky little cancerous polyps and cysts males have to watch out for. So on Thursday, students walking to and from the Johnson Center might see countless numbers of their peers spending the afternoon squeezing little gel sacks — that is, if they’re not trying desperately to get the limited edition Testival shirts that seem to sell as soon as they open the boxes. Testival 2008’s shirt featured an […]

   

• Wild weekend in baseball

  Sports April 19, 2010 at 2:04 pm Comments are Disabled

  By Brian T. Chan, Sports Editor From a hitting clinic to a 20-inning marathon, Saturday was just another wild day in baseball. But it was capped off with a no-hitter. San Francisco Giants ace pitcher Tim Lincecum dominated on the mound again, tossing six shutout innings and allowing four hits while striking out seven batters. Lincecum lowered his ERA to a miniscule 0.90 as the Giants topped the division rival Los Angeles Dodgers 9-0 on Saturday afternoon. But, it was not Lincecum’s pitching that started the wild weekend. Instead, the two-time Cy Young pitcher put forth his name in the running for the Silver Slugger Award as he registered three hits in four at-bats. Lincecum, a career .137 hitter prior to Saturday, got on base in the second inning with a bunt single. An inning later, Lincecum came to the plate in a bases-loaded situation and stroked a single to right-center field, plating two runs. Lincecum recorded a hit once more with a leadoff single in the fifth inning. He was unable to go 4-for-4 as he struck out swinging in the seventh inning. Moving on from one Cy Young pitcher to another former Cy Young pitcher, Johan Santana of […]