WILMINGTON, N.C. – UNC Wilmington advanced to the Colonial Athletic Association championship with a 5-3 win over top-seeded and nationally-ranked George Mason on Friday at Brooks Field behind the starting pitching of Daniel Cropper and home runs by Bobby Leeper and Alex Hill.

The Seahawks staved off elimination for the second time of the day and improved to 31-22 and will play for the CAA Championship for the third time. The Patriots dropped to 42-12 and were eliminated from the tournament after suffering a 9-3 defeat at the hands of Georgia State, who will be making its first appearance in the championship game. The Seahawks need to win twice in order to earn the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Cropper (5-2), a red-shirt sophomore, allowed two runs on six hits in a season-long 7 1/3 innings. It was his first start since April 24. Cropper struck out five and did not issue a walk.

Junior Bryan Booth nailed down his second save of the day and his sixth of the season, allowing one run on two hits in 1 2/3 innings. Booth struck out two.

Dan Gerjets (3-2) suffered the loss for the Patriots despite a solid start. He allowed just three unearned runs on four hits and a pair of walks in 4 2/3 innings.

No Patriots had more than one hit and they were held to three runs for the fifth time this season.

For UNCW, junior Robbie Monday was one of three with two hits on the night as UNCW held a 9-8 advantage in the hit column. Hill and Leeper both added two hits and drove in three and two runs, respectively.

The Seahawks had the first chance to get on the scoreboard in the second inning with runners on first and third against Gerjets and Leeper slammed his third homer of the season to give UNCW a 3-0 lead. Monday, who singled, and Hill, who reached on an error, scored on the round tripper.

Cropper retired the first 11 batters he faced until Scott Krieger dropped a single into short right with two out in the fourth.

UNCW had an opportunity to add to its lead in the fifth with runners at first and second after a bunt single by junior Ben Thielsen, but junior Grayson Evans bounced into a double play. A walk to sophomore Cody Stanley by Gerjets put runners at the corners and the Patriots turned to reliever Kevin Lingerman. The righthander closed out the inning by retiring junior Matt Holt on a routine fly ball to center.

Cropper started to tire in the sixth. He retired the first batter, but Spencer Wiggins singled and Chris Henderson homered to center to narrow GMU’s deficit to 3-2.

Hill got those runs back with a two-run homer to right off Lingerman in the bottom of the sixth. The blast was his first of the season.

Ryan Soares opened the seventh with his first hit of the night, a single through the left side. After a fly out by Shane Davis, Cropper fanned Mark Hill and Stanley gunned Soares trying to steal second for the inning-ending double play.

Brent Weiss led off the eight with a two-strike single to center. Cropper plunked Wiggins with one out and the Seahawks turned to freshman reliever Ryan Walker. Walker hit Henderson with a breaking ball on the first pitch to load the bases. Junior Bryan Booth came on to face Krieger and induced an inning-ending double play ball to junior Mike Rooney at shortstop.

Justin Bour doubled to left off Booth to open the ninth. Davis moved Bour to third with a single to left with one out and Hill plated Bour with a fielder’s choice to make it a 5-3 game. Thielsen committed UNCW’s first error of the game to extend the game and put the tying run on base. Pinch hitter Dan Schafferman ended the game taking a 1-2 breaking ball for strike three.