Sports in Brief

BASEBALL

The Rams took the first two games of the series with the George Mason Patriots down to the wire, scoring the winning runs in the bottom of the ninth to steal a 4-3 victory on Friday and a 10-9 win on Saturday. In game one, an error to start the bottom of the ninth provided VCU with the winning base runner.

Buckeyes vs. Gators: Part II

Just three short months ago the University of Florida defeated Ohio State in the national championship. That was in Glendale, Ariz., where the Gators handed the Buckeyes a 41-14 beat down on the football field. Now the two schools are represented in Atlanta tonight where the basketball teams will do battle in the Georgia Dome for the rights to the title of best team in college basketball.

VCU Sports Fact of the Day

Eric Maynor improved his scoring average by 9.2 points between his freshman and sophomore seasons. As a freshman he averaged 4.7 points per game. This season he averaged 13.9.

Third time not so charming for Rams

When Chris Jackson (Midlothian, Va./Manchester) led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a bomb of a hit that fell just short of the right field wall for a triple, it looked like the Rams were on the brink of their third straight nail-biting win.

But it was not to be as the George Mason Patriots were able to hold onto their lead and defeat VCU 8-5 at The Diamond Sunday afternoon.

Weird News

Chocolate Jesus hard to swallow

The exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct 6-foot chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was cancelled after Cardinal Edward Egan complained.

Other Catholics also voiced their outrage at the planned Holy Week exhibition at the Lab Gallery in New York City.

French Film Fest Review: Rock superstar

Fabrice (Fabrice Luchini) is a mid-forties office worker whose only joy in life comes not from his wife or daughter, but from France’s biggest rock star Johnny Hallyday.

Walking home drunk from the bar one night, Fabrice is singing his idol’s songs at the top of his lungs when a large man, upset by Fabrice’s late-night serenade, bursts out of his house and knocks him out.

French Film Fest Review: Mind’s-eye view

There were hundreds of widowers at the Byrd Theatre Sunday afternoon. At least, the film “Coup de Sang” drew the audience into the mind of Pierre Valois (Pierre Arditi). Using a first-person subjective camera with long, sparsely edited shots, we watch Valois meltdown as he replaces his apathy with contempt for life.