Score: VCU 5, Xavier 9
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio (Hayden Field)
Winning Pitcher: Logan Schmidt (3-2)
Losing Pitcher: Cade Dressler (1-1)
Save: Jonathan Kelly (3)
Records: VCU 15-8, Xavier 11-12
 
The short story: Despite opening the scoring early, and getting five outstanding frames from starting pitcher senior Christian Gordon, VCU Baseball could not hold off a charging Xavier squad to drop Saturday's match up at Hayden Field.

LEADING OFF

• VCU held a 3-0 lead heading into the fifth inning, but from the fifth to the seventh Xavier scored their nine runs to come back and pass the Rams
• Gordon held Xavier hitless until the fourth, finishing with three strikeouts while giving up just three hits and two earned runs
• Sophomore Aden Hill led the Rams at the dish, going 2-for-3 with one double and two RBIs
• Senior Brandon Eike smacked a triple while redshirt senior Cooper Benzin hit a home run to provide the Rams power on the day
• Matt McCormick led the Musketeers at the plate, going 2-for-4 with five RBIs and one home run hit

THE STRETCH

• Eike's triple came with one out in the first, and he was knocked in by freshman Chris McHugh's single that brought Eike the final 90 feet to give the Rams a 1-0 lead
• With graduate Ethan Iannuzzi on first, Hill smashed a two-out double to left center that brought home a hustling Iannuzzi to make it 2-0
• Over the opening frames, Gordon was nearly lights out, allowing only four base runners over the first three innings and in the fourth Xavier finally got a hit but that runner was also left on base by Gordon
• Xavier got its first two runs in the fifth, which would knock out Gordon after he finished the inning and put the score at 3-2 with the Rams still in front
• In the sixth, Xavier did its damage. After tying the game, McCormick hit a grand slam to center to make it 7-3 and it gave Xavier its first lead of the game
• The Rams got one back in the seventh when Benzin took a 3-2 pitch over the wall with one out to make it 7-4
• But in the bottom half of the frame Xavier got two more runs to extend its lead to 9-4
• VCU scored its last run of the game in the eighth as the two sides finished trading runs when Hill singled through the right side to score Eike who had reached on a fielding error by Xavier's second baseman
• But the deficit was a bit too much for the Rams as they did not make up the difference in the ninth to drop the game

NOTABLE

• The Rams have now gone three-straight games without committing an error
• Gordon has now gone five innings in his last two starts

NEXT UP
The Rams wrap up its weekend at Xavier with a 1 p.m. first pitch tomorrow. They return to the Diamond on Tues., Mar. 26 when they host William & Mary.