North Richmond Today

Score: No. 10 North Carolina 7, VCU 3 (NCAA Regional Final)

Location: Chapel Hill, N.C. (Boshamer Stadium)

Records: VCU 42-20, No. 10 North Carolina 42-20

The short story: VCU finished its eighth straight full season of 34 or more wins with a hard-fought loss to the nationally seeded Tar Heels in the Chapel Hill Regional Final.

FIRST PITCH

• The Rams wrapped up their 13th NCAA Tournament appearance after claiming back-to-back Atlantic 10 championships.
• This is the seventh time in program history that VCU has hit the 40-win plateau.
• Redshirt sophomore first baseman Tyler Locklear, sophomore shortstop Connor Hujsak, redshirt sophomore designated hitter Will Carlone, and sophomore left-hander Campbell Ellis were all named to the All-Regional Team.
• After starting the year 3-8, the Rams finished the year going 39-12 in their final 51 games, including a run of 17 straight wins from May 7-June 4.
• Redshirt sophomore left-hander Jack Masloff threw 4.0 scoreless innings of relief with four strikeouts to close the game for VCU. He followed redshirt junior lefty Jaden Griffin, who delivered 1.2 perfect innings out of the bullpen.
• Redshirt junior center fielder AJ Mathis went 2-for-3 with a walk, a run, and an RBI.
• Locklear went 1-for-2 and drew a pair of walks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Tar Heels jumped out to an early lead with a four-run first inning. Redshirt sophomore third baseman Ben Nippolt led off the bottom of the frame with a single, moved to second on a redshirt junior right fielder Logan Amiss single, to third on a balk, and scored on an RBI groundout from Mathis to make it 4-1.
• UNC added an unearned run in the third to push its lead to 5-1.
• Each team scored a pair of runs in the fourth. After the Tar Heels hit a two-run homer, the Rams led off the bottom of the frame with three straight singles from Mathis, Carlone, and graduate catcher Jacob Selden to plate a run. A sacrifice bunt from Benzin moved runners to second and third, and freshman second baseman Marcus O'Malley plated a second run with an RBI groundout, making the score 7-3.
• After inducing a 5-4-3 double play to get out of the fourth, Griffin cruised through a 1-2-3 fifth inning. Masloff followed out of the bullpen with a scoreless sixth on just five pitches.
• The Tar Heels put runners on in each of the last three innings, but Masloff stranded them each time.
• UNC's Gage Gillian earned the win on the mound with 4.1 innings of scoreless relief.

NOTABLE

• Locklear continued his climb up the VCU record books, tying for seventh in program history for single-season hits (90) and claiming sixth for single-season walks (47). He also ended the season on a 45-game reached base streak.
• Benzin laid down his 15th sac bunt of the year, the most in the A-10 and among the top 10 in the NCAA.
• Carlone ended the year on an 11-game hitting streak.

Original source can be found here.