I’ve sung the praises of college baseball, which I consider the most underrated sport in America, for a long time. Every game brings its own excitement, and the lead can change hands multiple times in a game.
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As I write this, my Georgia Bulldogs are #5 in the primary college baseball poll, although one poll puts us as high as #3. We’ve had some tough times maintaining that ranking, including climbing out of some massive holes in innings where we gave up a lot of runs. (Here’s an example of how hard we’ve made it on ourselves: we gave up nine runs in a 57-minute third inning on Wednesday and wound up winning 16-10.)
We saw a college baseball record this week at George Mason University in Virginia. The George Mason Patriots baseball team scored a record-setting 23 runs in the second inning of a game against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Tuesday.
⬆️3️⃣ The Patriots set a new NCAA record of runs scored in an inning (23).
The previous record was 21 runs scored by Wichita State (1984) and Penn State (1983) pic.twitter.com/4TZBl330Qg
— George Mason Baseball (@MasonBaseball) March 4, 2025
NEW NCAA RECORD 👏👀@MasonBaseball scores 23 runs in one inning setting a new NCAA record!#NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/ETz9hi570Q
— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) March 5, 2025
“Ironically, George Mason began the inning with a ground out, but the floodgates opened up after that with 19 consecutive hitters reaching base via walk, hit by pitch or fielder’s choice. In all, the Patriots had 11 hits (7 singles and 4 doubles), 8 walks and 5 batters hit by pitch,” reports ESPN.
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Here’s how the George Mason baseball page explained the inning:
George Mason (8-4) sent 28 batters to the plate and scored a NCAA record 23 runs in the second inning against five Holy Cross (5-5) pitchers.
In the record-breaking inning, freshman catcher Andrew Raymond doubled, walked, drove in three runs and scored three runs. Junior shortstop Owen Clyne doubled, walked, drove in a run and scored twice. Graduate student first baseman Jonny Wall singled, walked twice, drove in a run and scored three runs. Junior third baseman Evan Blanchard had two hits with a double and single, was hit by a pitch, drove in a run and scored three runs. Junior right fielder Drew Canody singled, walked, was hit by a pitch, drove in two runs and scored two runs. Freshman left fielder Lucas Alberti doubled, walked twice, drove in three runs and scored three runs. Sophomore designated hitter Owen Hull had two hits with a double and single, walked, drove in four runs and scored twice. Junior center fielder James Quinn-Irons had two singles, was hit by a pitch, drove in three runs and scored two runs. Sophomore second baseman Jake Butler, who started and ended the inning, was hit by a pitch twice and scored two runs.
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To give you an idea of how big a deal this is, the previous record was 21 runs in an inning. That happened twice: by Penn State in 1983 and by Wichita State in 1984. In other words, the previous record stood for 42 years.
Check out a video recap of the inning:
Here’s a look at the Patriots record-breaking 2nd inning at Spuhler Field yesterday. pic.twitter.com/kowG4wwvXo
— George Mason Baseball (@MasonBaseball) March 5, 2025
George Mason went on to win the game 26-6. Nobody can convince me that baseball is boring — at least not at the college level.
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