Wilmington, N.C.-Georgia State dropped its opening game in the CAA Baseball Championship, falling to VCU, 7-4, Thursday at Brooks Field. VCU's Seth Cutler-Voltz tossed a six-hit complete game, and Joe Van Meter's bases-loaded double in the top of the eighth inning broke a 4-4 tie.
Georgia State (34-22-1), the tournament's second seed, now falls into the loser's bracket and will play Friday at 12 noon against the loser of tonight's game between top-seeded James Madison and host UNC Wilmington. VCU (32-23-1) will face the JMU-UNCW winner Friday at 3 p.m.
With the scored tied at 4-all, VCU's Taylor Perkins drew a one-out walk off Panther reliever Jeremy Gazzero. After Doug Otto flew out, Matt Leskiw singled to put runners at first and third. Richard Gonzalez walked to load the bases for Van Meter, the Rams' leading hitter with a .430 batting average, and he delivered a line drive to the gap in left center, clearing the bases and putting VCU ahead, 7-4.
Cutler-Voltz (8-3), a first-team all-CAA selection, walked three and struck out two, throwing 108 pitches for his fifth complete game of the season. After Van Meter gave him the three run lead, he retired the Panthers in order in the eighth and then allowed just a two-out walk in the ninth.
"I think VCU did a great job; they were the aggressive team today, " said GSU head coach Greg Frady. "We did a good job of wiggling out of some tough spots, but when Van Meter got the triple, that was the spot of the game. Give him credit, it was a two-strike pitch he hit.
"Cutler-Voltz did a good job of doing what a good Friday night pitcher does - pitching deep into the game. We only had eight runners all day. We should probably feel fortunate we were able to score four. He made the pitches he needed to make in tough spots and we just couldn't get a lot of good swings.
"Our defense was good, we just couldn't execute some pitches and we couldn't get anything going offensively," continued Frady.
The Rams got on the board first with a pair of runs in the third. With runners at first and second, Van Meter delivered an RBI single, and then in consecutive at-bats, Francis hit Mikionis and Lenherr to bring in another run. But the GSU southpaw limited the damage by inducing a double-play grounder to end the inning.
Then the Panthers answered by manufacturing two runs in their half of the inning. Rob Lind led off the inning with a walk, then moved over to third on a sacrifice and then a groundout. After Micowski drew a walk, Maxwell poked a single through the right side to score Lind. With runners at first and third and two outs and Moniz at the plate, Maxwell took off from first. When VCU catcher Taylor Perkins threw down to second, Micowski crossed the plate to score before Maxwell was tagged out at the end of the rundown.
Georgia State took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning on Brandon Williams' two-out, RBI scoring single, which plated Bradley Logan, but the Rams tied the score one inning later on John Lenherr's run-scoring single, also with two outs. VCU then moved ahead in the sixth, taking a 4-3 lead when Doug Otto's two-out single scored Richard Kime.
The Panthers tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Shane Hammond belted a triple to left center and then scored on Justin Malone's sacrifice bunt.
Georgia State starter Aidan Francis gave up 10 hits and four runs in 5-2/3 innings but not figure in the decision. Gazerro took the loss to fall to 5-4.
