Rams Open up Atlantic 10 Tournament with 11-0 Win over Davidson

Box Score

The Basics

Score: VCU 11, Davidson 0
Records: VCU (34-22, 15-10 A10), Davidson (26-11, 14-11 A10)
Location: Tucker Field at Barcroft Park – Arlington, Va.
The Short Story: After finishing the regular season on a seven-game winning streak, VCU kept rolling in its opening game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, beating Davidson 11-0. Matt Davis tied an A10 Tournament record with fife hits in his 5-for-5 performance, including a home run in the top of the first. JoJo Howie went the distance in a complete game shutout, striking out nine and allowing just five hits.

How It Happened

Matt Davis kicked off VCU's Atlantic 10 Tournament stay with a bang, blasting a solo home run to left field in the top of the first.
Another VCU run came in to score in the top of the second after a sacrifice fly by James Bunn to bring in Darian Carpenter.
The runs kept on coming for VCU in the third inning; Darian Carpenter launched a three-run home run to left field, making the score 5-0.
In the fourth and fifth innings the Rams added five total runs with Logan Farrar's two-run double to deep right field capping off the fifth and extending the Rams' lead to 10-0. Another run came in to score in the top of the sixth, giving VCU a run in each of the first six frames.
On the mound JoJo Howie pitched about as good of a game as you could ask for from one of your seniors. Howie tossed a complete game shutout, his second straight game going the distance.

Quotable

"Always good in a double elimination tournament to get the first one. Of course JoJo Howie was masterful today. He was exactly what we needed today and anytime we don't have to go into our bullpen in a game like this is a big deal. The biggest thing we did was scoring runs with two outs, I'm really proud of the way the guys competed from the first pitch. But we still have a lot of work to do tomorrow." –Head Coach Shawn Stiffler
"My game plan going in was the same as it usually is, just trying to find holes in the hitter's swing and attack it with everything I had. Today I had every pitch going for me and I was able to make every pitch go where I wanted it to go." –JoJo Howie
"I didn't have any intention of giving up any runs, but they went ahead and made it easy for me. And I think it makes the other team feel the pressure, which makes me able to exploit that." –JoJo Howie
"It's huge. We had a lot of momentum going into today. Everyone was swinging well all day and we were punishing them for their mistakes, driving balls into the gap. Getting those early runs was huge for us. Usually when we get those early runs we're hard to stop." –Matt Davis

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