By Nick Pipitone
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) outfielder Alex Gary’s home run in the top of the fifth inning in the first game of the Pride’s three-game weekend set with the Rams might have been a pretty accurate omen for how the rest of the series was going to turn out: long and far off. Gary’s moon shot to left field off of junior David Huth sailed over the fence and onto the roof of Norwich house in Colonial Square East, setting the tone for a weekend that would belong to VCU.
The frustrated Pride lost this past Friday 11-10 at University Field, rallying back from a nine-run deficit, and then was swept on Sunday in a doubleheader, 8-2 in the first game and 12-1 in the second. With the weekend sweep, the Pride dropped to 18-26 overall and 6-12 in the conference, while maintaining the number seven spot in the CAA standings. VCU, conversely, improved to 26-12 overall and 11-4 in the conference, holding onto the number two slate in the conference, three games back from conference-leading University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
With James Madison University (JMU) getting swept by UNC Wilmington this past weekend, the Bulldogs fell to eighth in the standings, while the College of William & Mary, who stole a game from Delaware Saturday, moves up to the coveted sixth spot ahead of the Pride. Currently, the Pride is a game and a half back from William & Mary, who they hold the tiebreaker over, and a game and a half up on James Madison, who they play this weekend.
“[The weekend sweep] doesn’t help us, we would’ve have liked to have won a game,” head coach Chris Dotolo said. “But we’re still in a good spot because the two teams that we have left to play are both behind us in the standings (JMU and Old Dominion) and the two teams ahead of us (William and Mary and Towson), we’ve beaten in two out of three games. So we’re in a pretty good spot right now going into the last weekend.”
Except for Friday, when the Pride mounted a furious comeback, the ballclub couldn’t really find a good spot to settle in. In the first game of Sunday’s double-header, staff ace Will DeVito endured another difficult outing, allowing ten hits and eight earned runs in five frames, suffering the loss to even his mark at 5-5. In his past two starts, the Pride’s most reliable starting pitcher has relinquished 23 hits and 16 runs and has only managed to strike out one batter. His ERA has also ballooned to 5.73, nearly two points higher than it was two weeks ago.
The Rams were able to get to the Hicksville native early and often this past Sunday, scoring three runs in both the second and third innings. VCU was able to tack on two insurance runs in the fifth, courtesy of a Gary single to left field that scored fellow outfielder Trai Harris. A DeVito wild pitch later allowed Gary to score.
“We pitched the game all right, but they’re a real aggressive team,” junior first basemen and team captain Mike Walsh said. “They’re a real tough team to play and I think, honestly, there was a bit of an intimidation factor this weekend.”
And that factor was prevalent in the second game of the doubleheader as well, as VCU put up 12 runs on sophomores Ryan Dunn and Charlie Frago. Dunn pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up eight runs on eight hits, and Frago finished the remainder of the game and allowed four runs on seven hits.
The weekend was one that the Pride players hope to put behind them as they continue their pursuit of the last seed in the conference tournament, the first time they’ve ever been this competitive down the stretch in Dotolo’s brief four-year tenure.
“We just have to put this series behind us,” senior centerfielder Josh Stewart said. “The only positives are the negatives-we know what we did wrong and we have to build upon those. We got to make adjustments and come out [this] weekend [against James Madison] and take two out of three.”