Broomsticks batted away: baseball wins Sunday to avoid series sweep

Staff Reports

For VCU men’s baseball team, it’s another case of one step forward after two steps back.

The Rams – mired in the middle of the CAA with the regular season now three-quarters of the way finished – have avoided getting swept in all six of their three-game sets they’ve played against conference foes thus far.

But in four of those series, they’ve lost two of the three matches. And after defeating William & Mary 8-6 Sunday after losing the first two games of the weekend, the Rams have now had to stave off the series sweep in Sunday games on two weekends in a row, too.

Game 1

After having such a breakout year in 2010 that he was moved up to the No. 1 role in the starting pitching rotation, VCU junior Seth Cutler-Voltz continued his tough start to this season with the loss in the Tribe’s 4-2 defeat of the Rams in the series opener.

William & Mary was able to utilize a three-hit, three-run third inning to take a lead over the Rams that eventually proved to be insurmountable. VCU plated single runs in the sixth and the eighth innings to cut the lead to one, but the Tribe scored one of their own in the bottom of the eighth and never looked back.

With the loss, Cutler-Voltz’ record has now descended to 1-5 on the season.

Game 2

This game, VCU was the team that got off to the better start. Sophomore Nick Kime and freshman Chris Ayers both notched RBIs in the top of the second inning to put the Rams up 2-0.

In the third inning, however, VCU sophomore starting pitcher Kyle Haynes ran into trouble. After allowing a run to cut the lead in half, Haynes gave up a three-run home run to the Tribe to give them the 4-2 advantage. They then scored another four in the bottom of the sixth to put them up an insurmountable 8-2.

VCU scored a consolation run in the eighth off a run by freshman Joey Cujas. Haynes drops to 4-5 on the season.

Game 3

Just like last weekend against Northeastern, the Rams were made to stave off a series sweep on Sunday. And that they did, even though they almost let it slip away.

VCU jumped off to a super start, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. The Rams then scored four more in the third inning, pushing the lead up to 8-0.

William & Mary mounted a furious rally in the fourth inning and on, though. The Tribe first cut the lead to 8-3 in the fourth, 8-4 in the fifth, and 8-6 in the eighth.

Luckily for the Rams, reliever Jonathan Watson shut the door on the Tribe the rest of the way to notch his fifth save of the season and help VCU avoid what would have been their first series sweep of the season in the process.

The Rams are back in action on Tuesday when they face the Virginia Cavaliers, who are currently the No. 1 team in the country.