Rams left feeling sheepish

JMU crushes VCU in game 2 of CAA series Saturday

Jonathan Taylor / contributing photographer JMU sophomore right-hander Bobby Lasko delivers in Staurday's game against Virginia Commonwealth. Lasko started and picked up the win to improve to 2-4 while giving the Diamond Dukes their first CAA victory.

Unfortunately for Virginia Commonwealth University, just about everything was working for the JMU baseball team in its second game, of its opening weekend of Colonial Athletic Association play.

The Diamond Dukes (1-1 CAA, 8-16 overall) jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first two innings and never looked back, cruising to a 12-4 routing of the Rams (3-2, 15-6) behind the right arm of sophomore starter Bobby Lasko Saturday afternoon at Long Field/Mauck Stadium.

"Everything was working today," JMU junior third baseman Nate Schill said. "The pitching was great, [Lasko] was hitting his spots and we came out and gave him a lead and he just took it. It’s a good feeling to have everything clicking. We just need to take that into every day now."

Lasko owes a big part of his lead to Schill. Schill got JMU started, smacking his third home run of the year in the first inning. The three-run shot put JMU up 4-0. In the second, he picked up another RBI single.

"[Run support] gives you a lot of confidence in throwing your pitches," Lasko said. "You don’t have to nip at the plate. You’re up eight runs and you just have to let your defense work. Up that much, you just have to throw strikes."

Schill finished the game 3 for 5 with a home run, a double, three runs scored, five RBIs, and raised his batting average from .315 to .329. Schill came up a triple short of the cycle.

"I wasn’t thinking about [the cycle] at all," Schill said. "Especially in conference games, it’s important to get as many runs across as possible and my job is to help put up as many RBIs as possible."

Schill wasn’t the only the guy to put runs across the plate. Four other Diamond Dukes finished with RBIs. Freshman center fielder Kellen Kulbacki went 2 for 3 with two runs driven in. Junior first baseman Matt Bristow also turned in a 2 for 3 day with an RBI double. Junior second baseman Michael Cowgill drove in JMU’s first run in the first with a single and sophomore Dan Santobianco knocked in the Diamond Dukes’ final run with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

"The thing I liked about this game is that we played well and didn’t stop," JMU coach Spanky McFarland said. "That excites me that we didn’t sit on our lead. We kept it going."

VCU never got it going. Before the top of the ninth when they scored three runs on a late rally, the Rams had managed only one run off Lasko — which came off a Thai Blackburn solo home run in the third.

Lasko went eight innings, striking out eight and scattering six hits en route to picking up his second win of the year to improve to 2-4. He walked six.

"Some days being a wild pitcher is a good thing," Lasko said. "You don’t want to get predictable. You want to keep the batters guessing. I guess you can say I was effectively wild."

Thus far, JMU and VCU have split the first two games of a three-game series with the Rams, taking Friday’s contest 7-5. And now, the Diamond Dukes would like nothing more than to take the series from the fourth-place Rams. JMU currently sits sixth in the CAA.

"That would be wonderful," McFarland said. "We have had a storied history with [VCU] and there’s a rivalry. We have a lot of kids from Richmond and they do too."

After VCU leaves town, JMU turns its attention to Longwood University (8-18), which visits Long Field/Mauck Stadium Tuesday for a 3 p.m. matinee.