Chubb thoughts on VCU’s recent Atlantic 10 tournament run
Boy who knew we would even get a collegiate baseball season this year? And with fans!? Thanks to modern medicine I was able to attend one of the semifinal games of the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship. It was held in good ole Richmond, Virginia. VCU or Virginia Commonwealth University for those purists were hosts due to their stellar regular season. Talk about a nice perk for earning the regular season title and the top seed. Usually there are 7 total teams that play in the tournament but due to that darn pandemic they decided on 4. VCU, Dayton, Rhode Island, and St Joes rounded out the quartet to battle it out for an automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Something these four teams are pretty familiar with on the hardwood over the past decade since VCU joined the conference.
VCU made slight work of the opening game against St Joes scoring 8 runs over the first 2 innings and not looking back. They ended up routing the Hawks 15-4 as their mascot continued to flap his wings somewhere in Philly (IYKYK). VCU stretched its winning streak to 19 games which was the longest active in the nation and most ever in program history. My mother and I jumped on those $10 tickets to be able to witness the continued ass-kicking live and in the flesh for the next game.
Let me explain to you that the format for this tournament is double-elimination. Simply put, you win 3 games over the course of 3 days and you are conference champs with a chance to dance in the NCAA tournament. If you lose? Then you gotta win a lot and play some doubleheaders or two. We’ll come back to that. The game I attended was on Friday, May the 28th. Talk about a kick-ass way to start Memorial Day Weekend. A live baseball game with a hotdog? What’s more American than that?
Driving up to the game you kind of overthink the superstitious thing. The last time I saw a top seeded VCU team face a Rhode Island squad in a conference tournament was when the Rams of Rhody stunned our basketball team at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. My family and I made the trip in 2019 and had tickets for all 3 days anticipating we would make the final that year. But when your starting Point Guard goes down with a serious knee injury in the middle of the game all bets are off. The majority of that arena, dressed in black and gold were shell-shocked. Finally coming down from my pregame reception
“all-you-can-drink” buzz I thought quick on my feet and sold the rest of our tickets to some Rhody fans. Earlier that day as we were coming up the escalator from the subway we saw two teenagers beating the absolute shit out of another. My dad still jokes to this day that we saw 2 ass-whoopings that day. And one we had to pay for! Anyways enough with the PTSD, the thoughts were pushed into the back of my head for the rest of the drive. I was going to see a live baseball game rooting for a red hot team. This will be fun.
The first half of the game was a defensive masterpiece. Strikeouts abound and “web gem” plays that would make it on the airwaves of SportsCetner. Even the scouts were out and about. Never had I seen them before besides in the movies. They definitely fit the bill of a stereotypical scout.
The pitchers were throwing heat in the literal heat. We were definitely baking like a toasted-cheeser (Sandlot reference!) out there but damn was it awesome to be able to hear the crack of the bat and the roar of a crowd again.
It’s 0-0 headed into the 6th inning as VCU heads to bat. Don’t ask me why VCU was designated as the visitors even though they were the top seed. I still don’t understand that. Anyways VCU finally gets on the board after a sac fly to left. They end up with 2 runs in the inning but then Rhode Island decides to counter with 2 of their own in the bottom of the 6th tying the game up 2-2. Damn northeasterner’s. Speaking of which, there were a few obnoxious URI fans. There weren’t many fans in the stadium so you could easily hear these three girls near home plate. One of them sounded like a croaking rooster according to my mom and that was putting it nicely. These sisters or girlfriends of players were saying a lot of dumb shit and the cider they were drinking didn’t make things any more polite. I believe the other URI fans and players were used to it by that point in the season because they acted like they weren’t even there. Talking a lot of shit about our pitcher when throwing back to first even though their own pitcher did it more. Some trash talk I tell ya.
So after the 7th inning stretch it’s still knotted up 2-2 with Rhode Island coming to the plate. Throughout the entire game I had confidence VCU would turn the burners on. They were on a 19 game winning streak. No big deal. But then all of a sudden you hear the crack of the bat by the catcher in baby blue as a VCU Ram outfielder tracks back to the wall and…. 2-run homer just like that. 4 runs to 2. The Rhode Island fans in attendance were going wild and those girls? Let’s just say they weren’t the classiest. It was like I was seeing ghosts of Barclays Center’s past. As that GTA meme goes “Oh shit, here we go again.” Not the fucken Rhody Rams. I did this. I blame myself for this happening. Winning streak down the drain and NCAA tournament hopes in the balance all because I decided to go see them in person. Why do the Sport Gods hate me so much? As the game was headed to the 8th the Rams were now only 6 outs away from defeat. They were staring down the barrel of losing and having to play immediately again that afternoon against Dayton. In that blazing heat. If they somehow win that game then they would turn right around the next day on Saturday to face the same exact Rhode Island team… and have to beat them twice. Those damn double elimination rules. 3 wins in 2 days? It was definitely doom and gloom at that point. But hey, at least the tickets were only $10 and I got a hot dog out of it.
Earlier in the game my mom commented on the size, or lack there of from the VCU catcher. He definitely didn’t have Nick Chubb quads that’s for sure. She called him “Skinny Catcher.” Usually you have someone with a stocky build behind the plate so they can stop pitches but this dude was pretty tall and lanky. He would flare out his legs sometimes that looked like a baby giraffe trying to walk for the first time. He might not have had the typical look of a catcher but it worked. As he’s coming to the plate in the 8th with VCU down to their last 5 outs I noticed he said something with a smile and a smirk to the catcher of Rhode Island. The same catcher that had hit a 2-run homer to give URI the lead in the previous inning. I don’t know what was said but I want to believe that it was something about shutting up those obnoxious girls. *Boom* same scenario as the previous inning but now it’s a Rhode Island outfielder tracking back to the wall.. and just like that the game was tied! The VCU fans were going bonkers. The pure euphoria of a moment like that was something I longed for. High-fiving and screaming with my mom I immediately looked over to the URI section and saw the girls staring blankly into the abyss as their buzz was on a comedown. I never heard them utter a single word form that moment on as VCU scored 4 more runs that inning to take 4-run lead. “Skinny Pitcher” also hit a second 2-run homer in the 9th for an emphatic exclamation point. He had 4 hits and 5 RBIs in the game as VCU beat Rhode Island 10-4 advancing to the Championship game. URI had to turn right around that afternoon and play again, eventually losing to Dayton. You hate to see it.
We were contemplating on driving back up to Richmond for the Championship game on Saturday. But we were waiting on the weather to cooperate. Good thing we didn’t because it turned out to be a 4 and a half hour rain delay before they even threw the first pitch out. As a great 11th Grade English teacher of mine once said, “You can have a great time somewhere with friends. And the next week you can grab those same friends and head back to that same place and it won’t be anywhere near as fun.” VCU ending up winning that final game and became Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Champions. It was their first championship berth to the NCAA’s since 2015. It never gets old to watch a selection show while hearing and seeing your school’s name pop up on the screen.
VCU ended up losing in the regionals of the NCAA tournament but what a ride it was. They ended up having a 22 game win steak that extended their own school record beating the likes of nationally ranked/NCAA tournnamet teams UVA and ODU along the way.
For 3 hours on that Friday I was able to forget the world and just focus on what was taking place within those lines. It was great to be back at a live sporting event. Here’s to the next one and the next hotdog.
Dallas