Baseball wins two of three vs. William & Mary in weekend series

Quinn Casteel

Assistant Sports Editor

Friday (William & Mary 4, VCU 3)

The VCU baseball team fought tooth-and-nail with William & Mary in the opener of the weekend series on Friday, losing 4-3 to the Tribe in 11 innings.

The Rams led 2-1 after seven innings, but William & Mary collected four hits and posted two runs in the top of the eighth to take a 3-2 lead heading into the final frame. Kevin Nutter tied the game by scoring from third on a throwing error by VCU pitcher Kyle Pelchy, who pitched 4.2 innings of relief and allowed three runs, two of which were earned. Following Pelchy’s error, Tribe right fielder Josh Smith drove in the goahead run on a single to right.

In the ninth, Landon Prentiss delivered the clutch hit for VCU, driving in Taylor Buran to tie the game at three and send the contest to extra innings. William & Mary reliever John Farrell surrendered the Prentiss single, but would eventually get the last laugh. The Tribe gave Farrell a second one-run lead to work with in the 11th by scoring another unearned run on a VCU throwing error. Farrell went 4.1 innings of relief and would only allow the one run; he shut down the Ram offense in the 10th and 11th innings to improve his record to 2-0 on the season.

Saturday; first leg of

Doubleheader

(VCU 7, William & Mary 4)

In the first of two games played on Saturday afternoon, VCU had its best offensive output of the weekend, tagging Tribe pitchers for seven runs on 14 hits. Four Rams turned in multihit performances and they won the game 7-4 despite trailing going into the eighth inning.

VCU posted three runs in the fourth inning but William & Mary chipped away at the lead and posted two in the top of the eighth to take a 4-3 lead. However, in the bottom of the eighth, Prentiss continued his impressive weekend by tying the game with a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the inning. Three pitches later, Nice made it back-to-back home runs by launching one off Tribe reliever Ryan Williams and the Rams took the lead for good.

Things would continue to unravel for Williams in the eighth as VCU added two more insurance runs. Cullen hit his 18th double of the season and Weymouth laid down a bunt single before Brent Mikionis drove them both in with a two-RBI double.

Blake Hauser recorded the final four outs of the game for VCU and earned his second win of the season as the Rams evened the series at one, heading into the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Saturday; second leg of doubleheader (VCU 5, William & Mary 4)

VCU rallied for three runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the final game of the weekend series against William & Mary 5-4 on Saturday afternoon.

Buran and Vimael Machin led off the ninth inning with back-to-back singles for VCU, chasing Tibe starter Shain Cole out of the game. Farrell came in to earn the save, and seemed to have the game in-hand when he forced a Prentiss fly-out and struck Paul Nice out looking to take the Rams down to their final out, still trailing by two. However, Billy Cullen followed with a two-out, game-tying double in the left-center field gap. Then, with an 0-2 count, Jason Weymouth laced a walkoff single to left to send the fans at The Diamond home happy.

With the rally, the Rams negated what had been a solid start for Cole, who until the final inning had allowed just one earned run and struck out five. Seth Cutler-Voldez turned in another quality start for VCU, pitching 7.2 innings and allowing only two earned runs. However, he was not a factor in a the decision thanks to the Rams’ ninth inning comeback. Matt Lees pitched one inning of scoreless relief and earned his third win of the season for VCU.

By winning the series, the Rams improved their conference record to 9-12 and are now 22-18 overall. They face the University of Virginia at The Diamond in their next contest on Wednesday evening, with first pitch slated for 7 p.m. CT

Bill Cullen hit his team-leading 20th double of the season on Saturday afternoon.

Photo Essay

The VCU baseball team (22-18, 9-12) has now won five of its last eight outings dating back to April 10. After taking two of three games against William & Mary, the Rams improved to 22-18 overall and 9-12 in the Colonial Athletic Association. Next up for the Rams is a match with Virginia Friday night at The Diamond before they embark on a four-game road trip beginning at Old Dominion Saturday.