Emerging at George Mason, the former Robinson standout helped the Patriots to a school-record 42 wins and a berth in the NCAA tournament. Friday in Greenville, N.C., when No. 3 seeded George Mason (42-12) opens against No. 2 South Carolina (38-21), Reade will be a valuable bullpen option for coach Billy Brown.

“He’s become a go-to guy for us,” said Brown. “And he just fell in our laps.”

Before this spring, Reade’s last pitch that meant anything came in the 2003 Virginia AAA state championship game, where Robinson lost to Great Bridge. Six circuitous years later, Reade has compiled a 3-1 record with a 3.06 ERA. In 32 1/3 innings, Reade has surrendered 29 hits and 10 walks while fanning 33.

“I had no thought of playing baseball at all,” said Reade of enrolling at George Mason. “No doubt in my mind, my baseball career was over.”

It was a college career that seemed destined to never get off the ground. After a year at the Air Force Academy prep school, Reade was on the Falcons’ fall roster in 2005, but quickly realized that military academy life was not for him.

Reade transferred to Virginia Tech, which had recruited him out of high school. He was on the Hokies’ fall roster two seasons, but due to arm problems, never threw a pitch in the spring.

“My arm was deteriorating. I went from throwing 89 in high school to 82,” said Reade. “But I stuck with it for another year at Tech, made the fall roster again, but then my arm went dead. I could barely throw the ball 30 feet.”

Reade had tendonitis. The only cure was rest. That was fine with the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder, who figured his pitching days were through.

But Reade couldn’t give up the sport entirely, so he helped out at West Springfield High, where his former pitching coach at Robinson, John James, had taken over. Throwing batting practice, Reade realized his arm strength had returned. Impressed by the heat thrown by their coach, the Spartans helped convince Reade to give college baseball one last shot.

“I was just messing around with the kids, so I let it go a little bit,” said Reade. “They were like, ‘You have to go do this.’ They were a big motivation.”

Robinson High coach Bill Evers called Brown, asking him to take a look at Reade.

“At first I was skeptical. Nine out of ten times, those things don’t work out,” said Brown. “Ben’s the exception. Give him credit, he made it happen himself.”

When fall practice opened, Brown had one slot open on the 35-player, NCAA-mandated roster. Reade won it.

“We gave him a bullpen [tryout], as sort of a courtesy to his high school coach,” said GMU pitching coach Steve Hay. “He was a big kid with a strong arm. Then we noticed, every time, he was getting our players out.”

It was the fourth time Reade had made the fall roster for a Division I team. But in order to play in the spring, he had to navigate a series of NCAA bureaucratic hoops, a frustrating odyssey that took two months, and was necessitated by his circuitous college career.

“I had to fill out this thing that was like 80 pages long,” said Reade, 24. “Then they wanted more stuff, and more stuff after that.”

In February, a day before the Patriots were leaving for South Carolina for their first game, Reade finally received the news that he had been cleared. Three days later, in his first outing, he pitched a perfect inning in relief and got the win. Two weeks ago, when Mason won its school-record 40th game, Reade closed it out with two shutout innings at James Madison.

“I never imagined playing college baseball would be this much fun,” said Reade. “Part of it is waiting so long to do it. Part of it is just this team — great guys, great coaches, and we’re having a great year.”

The Patriots are quick to credit Reade.

“He’s an older guy. He’s got some maturity,” said Hay. “You can tell he really appreciates this chance. He’s a guy all along, who should have had a Division I career somewhere. We’re glad he stayed with it.”

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