GAME ONE
Score: VCU 7, Princeton 1
Location: Richmond, Va. (The Diamond)
Winning Pitcher: Christian Gordon (3-0)
Losing Pitcher: Justin Kim (1-2)
Save: Cade Dressler (2)
Records: VCU 13-5, Princeton 3-11
 
GAME TWO
Score: VCU 6, Princeton 3
Location: Richmond, Va. (The Diamond)
Winning Pitcher: Owen Tappy (3-1)
Losing Pitcher: Kasey Gilman (0-1)
Records: VCU 14-5, Princeton 3-12
 
The short story: VCU Baseball struck out 26 Princeton Tiger batters over two games, behind nine from senior Christian Gordon and seven by junior Cade Dressler in the first game and six from senior Campbell Ellis in the second game to go along with clutch runs late in both games to help the Rams complete the doubleheader sweep of the Tigers.

LEADING OFF

• VCU pitching struck out 16 batters in the first game and 10 in the second
• The Rams padded their lead with runs in the seventh during the opening game and used a three-run eighth in the second game to complete a comeback to wrap up the sweep
• Gordon tossed five innings as the starter in the first game, giving up just one run while striking out nine Tiger batters
• Junior Cade Dressler threw four scoreless frames, adding seven strike outs and no walks on his way to his second save of the season
• Ellis came out of the pen to throw four big frames for the Rams in the second game, striking out six batters while giving up zero walks and allowing zero earned runs on just one hit
• Sophomore Aden Hill had the big first game, going 2-for-4 with four RBIs and one double
• While in the second game four Rams, senior Brandon Eike, Hill, senior William Bean and junior Anderson Fulk all led the team with two hits
• Eike smashed his seventh home runs of the season in the second game
• Bean had two RBIs in the second game, joining Eike and redshirt senior Nic Ericsson in knocking in two runs

THE STRETCH (GAME ONE)

• VCU opened the day's scoring in the second when Hill smacked an RBI single to right center that scored Ericsson and with two outs the Rams added to their lead when junior Casey Kleinman popped a two-out two-RBI single to right that scored Fulk and Hill to make it 3-0
• Gordon pitched lights out over the opening four frames and until the fifth ran into little trouble
• In the fifth frame, Princeton got on the board, but Gordon worked through trouble to leave a pair of Tiger runners on base as he locked up a five-inning stellar performance on the mound
• VCU added a run on the sixth on an RBI groundout by redshirt senior Cooper Benzin but in the bottom the seventh the Rams built out a winning lead
• After three-straight Rams reached on Princeton errors, Hill took to the box with one out
• After battling to a full count, the Ram right fielder saw the pitch he wanted and smacked a three-RBI double down the left field line that cleared the bases and padded VCU's lead to 7-1
• Dressler then finished off the final two frames, allowing just one Princeton base runner over the eighth and ninth to lock up VCU's 7-1 win the opening game of the day's doubleheader

THE STRETCH (GAME TWO)

• Princeton would plate three runs over the first three frames, setting up a situation where the Rams would need to battle back to take the win
• The fight back was started in the third when graduate catcher Jake Wortman got on base with a walk. Then with two outs, Eike wasted little time taking the first pitch of his at-bat to dead center for his seventh of the season and with one swing of the bat Eike made it 3-2 Princeton
• Ellis would then shut down the Tigers keeping the Rams within one run over innings four-through-six. In the sixth VCU knotted things up at 3-3 when Bean smacked an RBI single through the left side
• VCU capped off its comeback in the second game with a three-run eighth inning and with one out in the frame Hill got it started with a single through the right side
• Hill then stole second, which played a big factor in Bean's single up the middle scoring the Ram sophomore from second for the go-ahead run
• Fulk then doubled down the right field line to put a pair of Ram runners on and with two outs Ericsson singled to left to score both Fulk and Bean making it 6-3 VCU
• In the ninth Tappy worked around a leadoff walk to finish off VCU's comeback win and sweep on the day

NOTABLE

• VCU's 16 strikeouts in the opening game were the most in a game this season and the most in a single game since 2021 when VCU struck out 17 batters at Georgetown (Apr. 9)
• Hill went 4-for-8 on the day with one double, two runs scored and four RBIs
• Bean had a 3-for-6 day at the dish, knocking in a pair of runners while scoring two runs
• Eike went 3-for-7 with one home run, two runs scored and two RBIs for a team-high six total bases
• VCU pitching gave up just four runs over the two games, walking only seven batters while facing 70 Tiger batters

NEXT UP
The Rams look to wrap up the four-game sweep of Princeton with a Sunday 1 p.m. first pitch. Sunday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+.