VCU Reaches First Super Regional

By Sean Ryan

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

(photo by Tom Marvin)

 

Shortly after the dogpile and innumerable hugs, VCU coach Shawn Stiffler’s thoughts quickly shifted.

 

“You think of Coach Keyes right away, how proud he’d have been,” Stiffler said by phone late Monday night.

 

Paul Keyes was VCU baseball for 18 years, coaching the Rams to 603 wins and eight NCAA Tournaments before passing away from cancer in November of 2012. Three current seniors – lefty starter Heath Dwyer, lefty reliever Matt Lees and stellar shortstop Vimael Machin – played on Keyes’ last team as freshmen. Stiffler coached alongside his mentor, known as Keydog, for six years before taking over the program. And his son, Paul Anthony Keyes is in his first year as director of baseball operations for the Rams.

 

It only seemed fitting Monday night in a winner-take-all Dallas Regional affair against Dallas Baptist that the final out of a 3-1 VCU win came with Lees on the mound and Machin making a splendid catch and throw on a chopper on the other side of second base. The Rams, winners of 14 of 15, are headed to their first Super Regional and became the just the fifth No. 4 seed to win an NCAA Regional.

 

“The reason we’re at this point is because of him,” Stiffler said of Keyes. “This program has so much of its history and its tradition and is prepared for Regional play because of his influence. It’s hard for me on this first one not to give a lot of credit to him for it.”

 

The one loss in the past 15 games came earlier Monday, when Dallas Baptist’s Brandon Koch struck out seven and allowed two hits in 4.2 innings in a 2-1 win over the Rams (40-23) that forced a second game to decide the Regional. Drew Turbin went 3 for 5 with a run, and Chane Lynch and Daniel Sweet had RBI for the Patriots, who had the nation’s best RPI for much of the year and end their season at 46-15.

 

After about a two-hour break between games, when the Rams soaked in the air conditioning, grabbed a bite to eat and took a little BP in the indoor cages, VCU followed its recipe for victory – superb pitching and defense, mixed with a hit batter or two and a pinch of timely hitting.

 

Freshman Sean Thompson tossed 5.1 innings with three hits, one run and four strikeouts, before Stiffler called on Lees, who shut down DBU for 2.1 innings earlier in the day. In his 120^th career appearance, a new school record, Lees did the same over the final 3.2 innings, finishing the day with six scoreless innings. In his second appearance of the day, the lefty threw 27 pitches, 24 for strikes.

 

The Rams, who haven’t allowed more than three runs in a game over the past 15 games, yielded only six runs in four games at the Dallas Regional.

 

“I have a lot of faith in the way we pitch, the way we call pitches,” Stiffler said. “To give up six runs in four games… I’m just super impressed with our guys and how prepared they were and how prepared [pitching] Coach [Steve] Hay had them.”

 

Offensively, VCU scored its first run when James Bunn was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the second – the Rams lead the nation with 112 hit-by-pitch. Cody Acker added the first of his two RBI grounders later in the inning for a 2-0 lead. His sixth-inning RBI grounder made it 3-1.

 

Not long after, VCU became the first Atlantic-10 team to reach the Super Regionals since 2002, when its crosstown rival Richmond traveled to Nebraska. The Rams, who were in danger of missing the A-10 Tournament before hitting their stride, are headed to Coral Gables to meet Miami.

 

“We need to go down there and play well,” Stiffler said. “We need to go down there and expect to win. We’re two games away from the College World Series, and that’s something we need to be prepared for.”

 

But first, VCU will celebrate.

 

Stiffler has some 300 texts to get through. Among the first were from another mentor, George Mason coach Bill Brown, whom Stiffler pitched for and coached with, and Trisha Keyes, Paul Keyes’ wife.

 

He’ll remember getting the chance to hug Paul Anthony Keyes, his director of baseball operations, shortly after the last pitch.

 

And he’ll remember his friend.

 

“This senior class was the last class he coached,” Stiffler said of Keyes. “It sticks with me a little more because of them. And how proud he would be of them.”