Score: No. 2 VCU 10, No. 7 Richmond 7 (A-10 Championship Final)
Location: Davidson, N.C. (Wilson Field)
Records: VCU 40-18, Richmond 30-26
The short story: VCU won its 15th straight game to claim back-to-back Atlantic 10 Championships and return to the NCAA Tournament.
FIRST PITCH
- This is the Rams' third conference tournament title since joining the A-10, eighth conference tournament championship overall, and they will head to their 13th NCAA Tournament.
- VCU won all four of its games at the 2022 A-10 Championship.
- Redshirt sophomore designated hitter Will Carlone slugged a career high seven RBIs, including his first career grand slam, part of a 4-for-4 day that also included a walk and a stolen base. He was named to the A-10 All-Championship Team.
- Redshirt sophomore first baseman Tyler Locklear, the championship's Most Outstanding Player, went 3-for-4 with his record-tying 19th home run of the season, three runs, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.
- Freshman right-hander Chase Hungate, the Rams' third member of the All-Championship Team, was lights out with a career-high 4.2 innings pitched, allowing one unearned run on three hits and no walks, and striking out three. He earned the win and improved to 6-4 on the year.
- Redshirt junior center fielder AJ Mathis rounded out VCU's selections on the All-Championship team, checking in with a 2-for-5 day and scoring a run.
- Redshirt sophomore lefty Jack Masloff recorded his team-best fifth save of the season, throwing a perfect ninth inning and striking out the final batter swinging.
- Freshman second baseman Marcus O'Malley had a pair of hits, including a double, while sophomore shortstop Connor Hujsak scored a pair of runs.
- The Rams got on the board right away in the top of the first, stringing together four singles with Carlone delivering a two-run base knock.
- The Spiders took the lead at 3-2 with a trio of runs in the bottom of the second.
- Carlone continued his red-hot May in the third, blasting a grand slam to left center. The bases were loaded after a Locklear leadoff single, a fielder's choice from redshirt junior right fielder Logan Amiss, a Hujsak walk, and a Mathis infield single before Carlone lifted a grand slam over the wall to give the Rams the lead back at 6-3.
- Richmond tied the game at 6-6 with an RBI single in the third, and a two-run single in the fourth.
- VCU reclaimed the lead with a three-run sixth, making it 9-6. O'Malley led off with a double to right, then the bases were loaded with Rams after a redshirt sophomore third baseman Ben Nippolt walk and a Locklear hit-by-pitch. O'Malley raced home to score on a wild pitch, Nippolt scored on an RBI groundout from Amiss, and Carlone dropped a single into right that scored Locklear.
- Hungate got three strikeouts to record back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth.
- Richmond scored an unearned run in the seventh to cut the lead to 9-7.
- Locklear added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with a solo shot to right center.
- Locklear's 19th home run of the year tied him for the VCU single-season record with Jason Dubois, who also hit 19 dingers in 2000. His 36 career bombs are second all-time in program history, one shy of Dubois' 37.
- His 74 runs and 75 RBIs are also both second in VCU history for a single season.
- Locklear also leads VCU with 85 hits, 41 walks, 23 hit-by-pitches, and 26 multi-hit games. He is on an eight-game hitting streak and has reached base in 41 straight contests.
- Carlone's homer was his seventh of the year, and his seven RBIs tied for the most in a single game by a Ram this season (redshirt sophomore left fielder Cooper Benzin had three homers and seven RBIs at Massachusetts on May 13). Across the final two wins of the A-10 Championship, the West Seneca, N.Y., product collected 12 total RBIs.
- Richmond's Brock Weirather threw a complete game shutout against VCU at Pitt Field on April 15. Since that game, the Rams have gone 23-3 and won two games in the A-10 tournament that Weirather started. VCU went 4-1 against the Spiders in 2022.
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