Baseball to host Saint Joseph’s this weekend

Staff Reports

The VCU baseball team will play its home opener Friday against Saint Joseph’s as the Rams and Hawks begin a weekend series in Richmond.

The Rams are coming off a 2-0 start to the season which began last weekend at the Elon Invitational in Burlington, N.C.

VCU beat Boston College 4-1 on opening day on the arms of sophomores Heath Dwyer and Matt Lees. Dwyer tossed six innings of one-run baseball while allowing four hits and striking out four in his first win of the season. Lees entered in the seventh inning and retired nine straight batters to close the game for the Rams, earning his first save.

After being snowed out on Saturday, VCU returned to the field Sunday and defeated tournament host Elon 6-2. Redshirt senior Taylor Buran hit a three-run home run to break the game open in the fourth inning and senior pitcher Ryan Farrar earned his first win of the season. He threw five innings and gave up one run.

Saint Joseph’s had a successful first weekend as well, winning a three-game series against a quality opponent in Stetson. The Hawks won 5-2 on Friday and 5-4 on Saturday before missing out on a sweep in a 7-6 loss Sunday. Saint Joseph’s offense had an impressive showing in its first weekend series, combining for 34 hits in the three games.

The presumed pitching match-up for Friday’s game between the Rams and Hawks will be Dwyer against Kyle Mullen, both of whom earned wins on opening day.

Start times for this weekend’s games at The Diamond will be Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Though both schools are members of the Atlantic 10, the series will go in the books as a non-conference matchup.