After dropping three out of four games in a series at George Washington from April 9-11, 2021, VCU Baseball went on a historic run, winning a program record 22 straight games. The Rams ended the season by lifting the Atlantic 10 championship trophy and earning a 2-seed in the Starkville Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
 
But now VCU turns the page to the 2022 season, which starts Friday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C., with a 2 p.m. tilt against reigning Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Champion Rider. While the NCAA Regional appearance served as a good watermark for the program, the Rams graduated several key pieces and welcome 20 newcomers to a 2022 roster of 40 players.
 
"It certainly was a reminder of where we want the program to be. It certainly was a reminder of how much fun a run like that can be, and what you want to strive for," Head Coach Shawn Stiffler said in a preseason press conference Tuesday morning. "You've got to quickly turn the page, and get to the point where this is a new team. This is a team that's going to find its own way to win."


 
While half the team is new to the program (nine transfers and 11 true freshmen), VCU's culture has ensured that there will not be a drop-off in quality.
 
"Our team does that on their own a lot," Stiffler said. "The culture of our returning players, our older players, the way they go about accepting those groups right away, and very quickly these guys set a tone that this is how we do things, this is the way we go about our work, and if you can't keep up or you're not fully bought in, you're going to fall behind very, very quickly."
 
VCU does still return several parts of its 2021 championship squad, including Consensus All-American third baseman Tyler Locklear, a redshirt sophomore. Last spring, Locklear became the first player to ever win both A-10 Player and Rookie of the Year in the same season. This year, he's already been named a Preseason All-American by a multitude of publications and was named to the Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list.
 
After bashing 16 home runs and collecting a .686 slugging percentage for the Rams, Locklear spent the summer playing for the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod League, the most prestigious summer league in the country. There, he and teammate Chase DeLauter, two of the highest rated collegiate MLB Draft prospects, tied for the league home run crown with nine bombs apiece.
 
"Just trying to get better. Having better pitch recognition, taking good at-bats, just trying to do whatever I can for the team," Locklear said of how he plans to follow up his breakout 2021 season. "I'm not really a big goal-setter, honestly. I just try to build off every year and take it day-by-day."
 
"One thing that Tyler's always been is teammate first. I tell people all the time, Tyler gets more excited for other people hitting home runs than he does himself," Stiffler said. "One thing I'm most proud of is I challenged him to go get better on defense over this past year when he went up to the Cape…That is the area for me right now where he has made the most growth in becoming a complete player, is his defense, and I'm really proud of him for that."
 
While VCU will be fielding a new starting outfield in 2022, the infield is filled with familiar faces and big bats. Next to Locklear at shortstop will be sophomore Connor Hujsak, an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie selection in 2021 after notching seven homers and 35 RBIs. The Rams also return redshirt junior infielder Michael Haydak, who was named to the 2021 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team and recorded 18 multi-hit games last spring while hitting .320.
 
Despite having two pitchers drafted last summer (Bradford Webb to the Rangers in the seventh round and Danny Watson to the Yankees in the 15th), the Rams still return lots of depth on the mound. Sophomores Tyler Davis and Mason Delane were All-Rookie selections last year, while redshirt junior right-hander Evan Chenier led VCU with six saves and compiled a 3-0 record.
 
VCU also welcomed back one of its own as its new pitching coach, 2010 Colonial Athletic Association champion Seth Cutler-Voltz, who ranks in the top-10 all-time at VCU for appearances, starts, and complete games.
 
"We've got a new pitching coach and we're all bought in to what his program is, we're loving what he's bringing to the table," Chenier said. "He's super positive from all aspects. I think everybody's just excited at this point to go out there and fill up the zone. People can't wait to get out there and start getting dudes out, helping the team, getting wins."
 
VCU faces a challenging 2022 schedule, facing some of the best teams in the country. The 56-game slate features 15 games against teams that were in the NCAA Tournament field in the spring, including three national seeds (Old Dominion, Ole Miss, and East Carolina), and a fourth, Virginia, that advanced to the College World Series.
 
"The expectation of this program is to play in the NCAA Tournament every year. To do that, you have to be in those type of settings, I firmly believe that," Stiffler said. "These athletes want to test themselves, and they want to play the best teams in the country, and that's where I want this program to be, and that's where we all want this program to be, so we're not going to duck from it."
 
In a preseason poll of the league's coaches, VCU was picked to repeat as Atlantic 10 champions with 11 first-place votes. And while the Rams are focused on getting better every day, the ultimate goal is to lift the trophy again.
 
"Tom Brady always says the best one is the next one," Locklear said. "So that's always the goal for us."
 
"We were out on the field together when those final outs were made," Chenier said about himself and Locklear at the 2021 A-10 championship game. "That was a feeling like no other and I want to do it again. Anything I can do, we can do, to get back to that, get back to the championship, win another ring, I'm ready to do it."