Rams baseball No. 2 in preseason poll

With six position players and three pitchers returning from a squad that captured last year’s CAA Championship, the VCU baseball team finished second in the CAA Preseason Poll, picked by the head coaches earlier this week. The Rams ran through last year’s CAA Tournament with a perfect 4-0 record and finished the season with a 37-23 […]

January 21, 2008; 9:01 PM • by FTRea

With six position players and three pitchers returning from a squad that captured last year’s CAA Championship, the VCU baseball team finished second in the CAA Preseason Poll, picked by the head coaches earlier this week.

The Rams ran through last year’s CAA Tournament with a perfect 4-0 record and finished the season with a 37-23 overall mark. It was the 12th straight season that VCU posted at least 30 wins.

At the helm for VCU is head coach Paul Keyes, who enters his 14th season with an overall mark of 478-289, just 22 wins away from the elusive 500-win club.

Leading the way offensively for the Rams will be the junior duo of Chris Jackson (Midlothian, Va.) and Jared Bolden. Bolden, who was an All-CAA and All-Region honoree last year, was VCU’s leading hitter with a .383 batting average, racking up a team-high 18 doubles and five home runs along the way. Jackson, who is coming off an All-Star summer in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate League, returns as the leading RBI man driving in 57 runs last year while being the only Ram to start every contest.

On the mound, senior Cody Eppley will be looked upon to lead the way as the right-hander has led VCU in wins the past two seasons. Joining Eppley will be the sophomore duo of Howie Deemer and Phillip Deane (Richmond, Va.), both of whom were key starters a year ago.

The Rams will start their title defense in a little over a month when they travel to Austin, Texas to take on the nationally ranked Longhorns of the University of Texas. The first game of the three-game set is scheduled for Feb., 22 at 2:30 p.m.

– This report was supplied by Scott Day,
VCU Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

January 21, 2008 9:01 PM 0