VCU BASEBALL YEAR IN REVIEW
One year removed from a season that was shortened due to the global pandemic known as COVID-19, the VCU rams were eager and ready to get back on the diamond. Before the season was stopped in March the rams were 9-8 so going into this season, the VCU rams entered the season as one of the three favorites along with Fordham and Dayton to win the A-10 conference. VCU has tasted success before more preferably in 2015 by winning the Dallas Regional so whose to say they couldn’t find the same success again. The team was led by manager Shawn Stiffler and the dynamic duo of Hunter Vay and eventual A-10 player of the year Tyler Locklear. The season however did not get off to a pleasant start for the Rams, they got off to a 1-5 start including losing their first four games. One game though early on was the turning point of the season. Their next game was against VMI and going into the 9th inning they trailed 8-4 and showed amazing resiliency and had a 6-run 9th inning and won 10-8. This proved to be the turning point early on in the season and ended up winning the next 3 games after that and 7 of their next 9 games and started to look like the team they were expected to be going into the season. VCU went into conference play with a 15-11 record. Their conference series opener was against George Washington where they lost 3 of 4, and were sitting with a 16-14 record barely above .500, but nobody could have predicted what was about to happen next. VCU would go on and win their next 22 yes that’s right 22 straight wins for the VCU rams. Something changed within the team and started firing on all cylinders and the confidence grew the longer the winning streak went. VCU ended up going 13-3 in conference play winning the regular season A-10 title as well as the A-10 conference tournament in a 7-6 win over Dayton in the final. VCU went into the NCAA tournament as one of the hottest teams in the nation with the long winning streak, with a RPI ranking in the top 30 and were looking to do damage in the Starkville regional. They would dominate in the opening game in a 19-4 win over Campbell. However, the win streak would come to an end their next game against Miss State in a 16-4 loss. Their season would be on the line against Campbell where despite a hot start would fall 19-10 and the outstanding season for VCU would come to an end. VCU would finish the season at 38-16 and an outstanding 20-3 home record. Even though the season did not end how the rams had hoped, they fought through some early adversity in the season and came back to win the A-10. All in all, it was a solid season for the rams and the team is fairly young and deep. With players like Hunter Vay, Jack Schroder, and Tyler Locklear, this team looks to be back just as strong if not stronger next season and will be once again the favorite to win the A-10 and possibly make another strong run for the NCAA tournament. The future is bright for VCU Baseball.
