Last night’s 10-1 victory over the University of Richmond Spiders will probably be a game that VCU Rams’ RHP Phillip Deane (Richmond/Varina) will remember for a long time, even if it didn’t end as perfectly as he may have wished.
Deane was doing his best Nolan Ryan impression heading into the top of the eighth inning, striking out six Spiders batters while allowing no hits. But his bid for the Rams’ history books ended with his first pitch of the inning, a homerun that just eeked it’s way over the left field wall by Richmond CF Alex Wotring.
The Score
VCU 10
UR 1
After striking out the next Spider’s batter, Brett Walker (Virginia Beach/Cox) came on in relief as the VCU contingent of the 338 fans at The Diamond cheered on Deane into the dugout.
“Richmond’s a good team, they hit the ball right at us a couple times,” Deane said. “But our defense came out and made some really good plays behind me, and I just got in the zone.”
While The Diamond’s state of the art video scoreboard malfunctioned from the beginning of the game, it was the complete opposite for the bats of VCU.
The Rams jumped to a quick 4-0 lead thanks to two straight RBI singles by designated hitter Barrett Ripley (Glen Allen/Hermitage) and third baseman Chris Jackson (Midlothian, Va./Manchester), and two runs off a fielder’s choice from the bat of left fielder Kwan Evens (Hampton/Bethel).
VCU would add six runs in the next three innings, two each being batted in by second baseman Richard Gonzalez (Puerto Rico) and first baseman Jared Bolden (Lynchburg/E.C. Glass). One of Bolden’s RBIs came courtesy of a solo homerun in the fourth.
Sergio Miranda’s (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) double in the second inning also added a run to VCU’s tally.
The Rams’ bats noticeably pleased head coach Paul Keyes.
“That was one of the most complete games we have played offensively this year,” Keyes said. “When we’re consistent like that we’re pretty good and it was great to do that against a cross town rival.
Keyes also had words of praise for his freshman starting pitcher.
“Deane was outstanding. He made a good play on a comeback hit to begin the game and he just took off from there.” Keyes said. “We initially wanted to give him six innings but we he had the no hitter going and we decided to let him pitch a little more. He probably could have gone the whole game, but we decided that was enough for him (after 7.1 innings).”
The Rams’ next game is this Friday against the CAA-leading Old Dominion Monarchs. The first pitch is set to be thrown by John Leonard (Virginia Beach/Kellam) at 7:00 p.m. at The Diamond.