VCU baseball begins season on a good note

Adam Stern
Assistant Sports Editor

Considering the men’s baseball team has won more CAA Championships in the past decade (four) than any other squad in the conference, finishing second-to-last the past two seasons hasn’t quite held up to the steep standards of yesteryear.

Coming into this season, the Rams are still being viewed as a shadow of their former selves for the most part. VCU was picked to finish seventh in the CAA according to the CAA preseason poll, which is voted on by the conference’s coaches.

Over the weekend, the Rams began the process of returning to their glory days in fine fashion as they opened up the season 2-1 after downing Charleston Southern in a three-game set on the first weekend of non-conference play.

Senior infielder Richard Gonzalez (Caguas, Puerto Rico/PRBA) had a great weekend and earned himself Co-CAA Player of the Week honors after going 7-13 at the plate including three doubles and six runs scored. The Puerto Rico native, who won the CAA championship his freshman season and is now at the forefront of the charge toward another, is coming off a busy off-season. Gonzalez played for the New Market Rebels of the NCAA-sanctioned Valley Baseball League, starting in all 47 games he played in and driving in 31 RBI.

In the first game of the series VCU came out hot and led the entire way through before cruising to a 7-5 victory.

Senior Doug Otto (Jefferson City, Mo./Johnson County Community College), who is coming off a season where he played with a broken hand, was the catalyst for the victory as he hit two key homeruns in the third and fifth innings.

In the second game against the Buccaneers, VCU marked the long-awaited debut of pitching prodigy Blake Hauser (Chesterfield/Manchester).

At first, Murphy’s Law seemed to be in full effect for the right-hander as he walked a batter, threw a wild pitch and allowed a run to score off a balk- all in his first inning of collegiate ball. However, Hauser recovered to strike out the side, and continued pitching until he was replaced after four innings of work.

Though Hauser got a no-decision on the day, VCU was still able to pick up the 9-5 victory thanks in no small part to relief pitching by senior Robbie Andrews (Covington/Alleghany).

Andrews, who had 13 saves for Forest City Owls of the Coastal Plain League this summer, converted saves on both Friday and Saturday while only allowing one hit in three innings pitched overall. This comes as breath of fresh air to a Rams team that only converted seven saves last season, which ranked sixth in the 11-team conference.

Yet all the good work that was on display in Friday and Saturday’s wins seemed to leave the Rams fatigued in the third and final match up Sunday, as they lost 5-2.

After a combined 26 hits in the first two games, VCU only managed an infertile four in the third game. That was compounded by red-shirt sophomore Mike Graham (Fairfax Station/South County Secondary) picking up his first loss of the season after giving up four earned runs in only two innings pitched.

The Rams will be back in action Friday as they play a three-game set against Fairfield University in the first of nine straight home games at the Diamond.

Elsewhere in the CAA, defending champion Georgia State got their season off to a shaky start after going 0-3 during the opening week, being swept in a three-game set at perennial powerhouse Florida State over the weekend.