Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY RYAN LOMBARDI, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After a weekend full of schedule craziness, Luke Roggenburk came in relief and dazzled with nine strikeouts as St. Bonaventure Baseball defeated VCU Sunday 11-6 to win the rubber match 2-1.
This marked the first Atlantic 10 series win for the Brown and White since 2019. The Bonnies haven’t won a series in conference play yet after being swept by George Washington and losing 2-3 to Dayton.
The Rams entered the weekend series atop the A-10 standings with a record of 5-1. This also marked the first series win in program history against VCU.
“We needed to make a statement, we kind of had our backs against the walls with a couple of tough conference opponents,” coach Jason Rathbun said. “VCU was the number one team in the conference coming here. I thought if we could win this series, it would put us right back in the mix … It was huge for us.”
Sophomore left handed pitcher Bobby Finn took the hill for Bonaventure on Sunday for Game 3. The Bonnies took Game 1 Friday morning, 7-5. Saturday, the Rams responded in Game 2 with a 5-0 shutout win.
Bonaventure got on the board first with an RBI single off the bat of sophomore left fielder Chris Hoalcraft. Later in the inning, senior right fielder Adam Rankie extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an RBI single of his own to make it 2-0. The Bonnies would tack on three more runs to go up 5-0 in the second.
VCU crawled back into the game in the third with three runs of their own to cut the lead to two.
Bonaventure tacked on some insurance runs in the fourth with a pair of back-to-back RBI singles from senior third baseman Jack Putney and junior first baseman Morgan Little.
The Rams added two more in the fifth and knocked Finn out after four and a third, cutting their deficit back down to two. Junior right handed pitcher Luke Roggenburk entered on the mound for Bonaventure and the Rams continued to threaten the Bonnies’ lead.
In the sixth, VCU loaded the bases with nobody out. But that wouldn’t matter after Roggenburk retired the next three batters on strikes to escape the jam.
“I was focused on not letting them score,” Roggenburk said postgame. “ Just wanted to throw hard and fill up the zone.”
Roggenburk made nine appearances in relief this season and started seven games last year.
Coach Rathbun, when asked about his confidence in Roggenburk during the sixth: “Lots of confidence, he has been here, been in a lot of games, absolutely love him out of the pen,” Rathbun said. “When he gets on a roll like that, he can put up some zeros.”
Roggenburk finished with a career-high nine strikeouts through 4 ⅔ innings of relief. He allowed only five hits and one run.
Morgan Little produced three hits, including a two-run home run in the eighth, to cap off a huge win for Bonaventure. The junior transfer has made an impact both offensively and defensively for Bona’s, batting .296 with four home runs and slugging .429. Little has committed only one error all season.
“I love this team, we are all fighting so hard, everyone in the dugout bringing energy, Mo (Little) is hitting bombs, I’m just loving it,” Roggenburk said postgame. “It makes it so much easier knowing guys have your back, you can just focus on your catcher and throw your stuff.”
The Bonnies jumped two spots in the A-10 standings and now stand one game out of a playoff spot.
Bonaventure will travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET.
lombarrl23@bonaventure.edu
