April 19, 2009

RAMS DROP SERIES FINALE TO 25TH-RANKED GEORGE MASON, 9-2
Top three hitters combine for eight hits on the afternoon
Box Score
RICHMOND, Va. – Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way and for the Virginia Commonwealth University baseball team, Sunday afternoon was one of those times.

The Rams battled, but weren’t able to string enough hits together, dropping the finale of a three-game Colonial Athletic Association set, 9-2, to the 25th-ranked Patriots of George Mason at The Diamond.

“I really thought we played alright all weekend,” Head Coach Paul Keyes said. “Towards the beginning of the game it almost seemed like we were snake bitten because we hit a lot of balls hard, but they wouldn’t fall for us, it was just one of those days.”

With the loss, the Black & Gold falls to 18-14 overall and 6-6 in conference action, while Mason improves to 30-7 on the year and 11-4 in CAA play.

Mason would get the offense rolling in the top of the second when Justin Bour and Ryan Soares connected on back-to-back singles to start the frame. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, a wild pitch plated Bour and an RBI double by Brent Weiss scored Soares and gave the Patriots a 2-0 lead.

Juniors Andrew Dimino (Greenwood, Ind.) and M.L. Morgan (Petersburg, Va.) got a VCU rally started in the home half of the third with consecutive singles and classmate Doug Otto (Jefferson City, Mo.) was plunked with a pitch to load the bases. Senior Justin Wright (Yorktown, Va.) brought Dimino and Morgan home with a single into centerfield that even the score at 2-2.

VCU’s nemesis all weekend was Scott Krieger and he haunted the Rams again in the fifth with a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle to reclaim the lead, 4-2, in favor of the Patriots.

Soares added to that lead by lacing the first pitch of the top of the sixth over the left field wall for a solo home run and pushed Mason’s lead to 5-2.

Morgan started things up again in the bottom of the seventh with a single into left-centerfield and Otto followed with a bunt single down the third base line. With two outs, Wright stepped up and launched what looked to be a game-tying home run down the right field line, but it was called foul.

Mason reliever Ryan Brecko settled in and induced a 4-6-3 double play on the very next pitch and ended the Rams threat.

“I thought that sequence really took the wind out of our sails,” Keyes said. “I couldn’t tell from where I was standing about whether the ball was foul or fair, but we need to be able to try and hang tough and get through adversity like that.”

A Krieger triple in the eighth was followed by an RBI single from Bour to push the lead to 6-2. Two more RBIs from Bour in the ninth and a sacrifice fly from Chris Henderson extended the advantage to 9-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Dimino and Morgan strung together back-to-back hits once again in the bottom of the ninth, but Jordan Flasher hung on to nail down the victory and series win for Mason.

Junior Robbie Andrews (Covington, Va.) (1-1) was saddled with a tough loss, giving up just three earned runs in six innings of work. He allowed just six hits, struck out two and walked no Mason hitters.

“I thought Robbie did a pretty good job today,” Keyes said. “He did what we needed him to do, but they were able to string together a couple hits with two outs and their big guys came up with clutch hits with runners on.”

Offensively, Dimino and Morgan both had three hits in five at-bats, while both scoring a run on the afternoon. Otto was the other Ram with a multi-hit performance, going 2-for-4 in the loss.

The Black & Gold are back in action on Tuesday evening as they host in-state rival and nationally-ranked Virginia in a 7 p.m. contest. The first 500 fans will receive a free “VCU Baseball” t-shirt.