Final Score: VCU 13, St. Bonaventure 1
Winning Pitcher: Evan Bert (2-1)
Losing Pitcher: Tripp Breen (1-1)
Location: Richmond, Va. (The Diamond)
Records: VCU 15-13 (2-1), St. Bonaventure 4-17 (1-2)
 
The Short Story: 12 runs in innings two and three put VCU Baseball ahead of St. Bonaventure early and for good as the Rams took the rubber game to win their Atlantic 10 opening series on a perfect day at the Diamond.
 
LEADING OFF: 

• VCU's win gives them a series win in the opening Atlantic 10 weekend for the second-straight season.
• The series win is VCU's fourth-straight weekend series win this season.
• VCU has won its last four-out-of-five games.
• The Rams used innings two and three to build a lead they would not give back, scoring four in the second and seven in the third.
• William Bean went 2-for-4 with a home run and he knocked in two runs.
• Will Carlone joined the multi-hit parade going 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored.
• Logan Amiss smacked a pair of hits, going 2-for-3 with three runs scored.
• Batting in the ninth spot, Ethan Brooks went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
• Mason Delane gave the Rams four strong innings from the start, giving up just one earned run and four hits.
• Evan Bert got the win with two innings of scoreless relief, giving up just two hits.
• Brandon Erka, Kyras Dawson and Nick Frazier each gave VCU one scoreless inning of relief work.
• The Rams were hit a season-high seven times during the game.

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• The Rams got the scoring started in the second inning, scoring four runs on three hits.
• A big play in the second frame came when Cooper Benzin smacked a ground ball to third with Brooks on second. Benzin's hustle down the line forced a bad throw by St. Bonaventure's Pierce Hendershot which allowed Brooks to keep chugging around third to score and put Benzin on third. Benzin would score the fourth run on a Brandon Eike sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-0.
• In the third, VCU kept the momentum scoring seven runs on five hits to put significant space between them and the Bonnies.
• After a leadoff walk by Bean, VCU would string together four straight hits. Getting singles from Amiss, Nic Ericsson (RBI), Brooks (RBI) and AJ Mathis (RBI). A Benzin walk broke up the base hit streak, but Carlone followed up Benzin's walk with a single up the middle to score Mathis to make it 9-0.
• The Rams added two more runs in the frame on a sacrifice fly from Bean that scored Carlone and Ericsson being hit by a pitch to score Eike and after three innings the Rams had a commanding 11-0 lead.
• The Bonnies scored their first run in the fourth on a solo home run by Jackson DeJohn but Delane worked through the one-out home run to strand three Bonnies in the frame getting the final out on a fly ball to right.
• VCU added a pair in the bottom of the fifth, powered by a leadoff home run to left from Bean. Scottie O'Bryan singled in Amiss (HBP) to score VCU's final run of the game making it 13-1.
• Over the final four innings neither team would get runs across. Partly because of the solid relief pitching for VCU.
• Bert, who got the win, entered in the fifth to toss two scoreless frames. After Bert, Erka, Dawson and Frazier all pitched scoreless innings.
• During the final three frames, the VCU pitchers each only faced four batters as they shut down the Bonnies offense to lock up VCU's Atlantic 10 series win.

UP NEXT: VCU hosts VMI on Tuesday, Apr. 4 at 6 p.m. before returning to A-10 play over the weekend of Apr. 7-9 with a visit to Saint Joseph's. Tuesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+.