ST. BONAVENTURE (10-17, 1-5 A-10) vs. VCU (22-11, 5-1 A-10)
Friday - Sunday, April 12-14
Handler Park at McGraw-Jennings Field

LEADING OFF                                     

• The Bonnies return home to Handler Park at McGraw-Jennings Field to host their second Atlantic 10 conference series in as many weekends as VCU comes to town this weekend.
• St. Bonaventure is fresh off a rivalry victory in midweek action as the Bonnies won at Canisius Tuesday afternoon. Senior Adam Rankie had four hits, with the fourth not only being his 100th Division I career hit but also a bases-clearing double that put the exclamation point on a 10-run eighth inning as the Bonnies rallied from down 9-4 to win 15-9 over the Golden Griffins.
• The Bonnies earned their first A-10 win in dramatic fashion last Sunday when Rankie provided a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth for an 11-10 win over Dayton. Harrison Kaufman and Paul Vossen started the rally with two-out singles followed by Rankie's game-winning hit to center.
• SBU is 1-5 in A-10 play following series vs. Dayton and on the road at George Washington. VCU enters this weekend 5-1 in A-10 action following series victories at home vs. UMass and Davidson in the first two conference weekends. VCU took two of three vs. UMass before sweeping Davidson last weekend. VCU dropped a midweek game at No. 11 Virginia on Tuesday, 8-4.
• The Bonnies enter this weekend hitting .280 as a team on the season, a mark that ranks fourth in the A-10 this year. Six Bonnies regulars are hitting better than that mark - Rankie (.352), David Marshall Jr. (.321), Jackson DeJohn (.298), Jack Putney (.297), Vossen (.292) and Morgan Little (.290).

SCHEDULE CHANGE
With rain in the forecast for much of the weekend, the schedule has already been adjusted and could have more changes as the series progresses. Friday's game has been moved up to an 11 a.m. start. Follow the Bonnies on X @BonniesBaseball for more schedule updates as they occur. Due to the altered start time, Friday's game will now shift to a radio broadcast on the Bonnies Online Network while the final two games of the series will be on ESPN+.

PROBABLE STARTERS
RHP Michael Salina (2-3, 3.86) vs. RHP Zachary Peters (2-2, 5.62)
RHP Noah Czajkowski (2-2, 8.33) vs. LHP Christian Gordon (3-1, 5.08)
LHP Bobby Finn (2-0, 5.14) vs. RHP Everett Vaughan (0-2, 7.08)

RANKIE IN THE RANKS
Adam Rankie has been one of the top hitters in the Atlantic 10 this season. The Bona's senior ranks ninth in the A-10 in batting average at .352 while his 12 doubles are third among A-10 hitters and his 43 overall hits are tied for fifth in the conference. Tuesday at Canisius he had a four-hit game for his 14^th multi-hit game of the season which leads the team. He enters this weekend with an 11-game hitting streak and reached 100 hits with the Bonnies in just his 74^th career Division I game Tuesday. His 100^th Bonnies hit was a bases-clearing double in a win at Canisius. Last year, he had a 17-game hitting streak which was the longest by a Bonnies player in a decade and third-longest in Bona's Division I era. He's proven to hit both lefties and righties as he hits .342 against left-handers and .356 vs. righties.

STREAKING
While Rankie enters this weekend on an 11-game hitting streak, other Bonnies have their own streaks going as well. Morgan Little has reached base safely in 12 consecutive games while David Marshall Jr. has a seven-game hitting streak, his longest of the year. Last week, Paul Vossen had a Bonnies season-best 17-game streak of reaching base safely snapped.

WALK THIS WAY
Freshman Antonio Cordeiro made his way into the Bonnies program record books as he drew five walks in Tuesday's win at Canisius. That is a Bonaventure record for walks drawn by a batter during the program's Division I era which dates back to 1983. The first-year catcher has drawn a team-high 19 walks on the year and owns a .411 on-base percentage in 24 games including 19 starts.

GETTING ON BASE THE HARD WAY
Grad captain Jackson DeJohn also made a bit of history for the Bonnies last weekend – in tough fashion. DeJohn reached base on a hit by pitch for the 34^th time in his Bonaventure career last Sunday vs. Dayton. That broke a tie with associate head coach B.J. Salerno, '09, who was hit 33 times during his Bonnies career, for the most HBP in program history.

TRENDING UP
Two Bonaventure sophomore southpaws had their best career outings in the past two contests. First, sophomore lefty Bobby Finn helped lock down a Bonnies win in an Atlantic 10 game vs. Dayton last Sunday. The East Islip, N.Y. native worked a career-long 4.2 innings out of the Bona bullpen, allowing just two hits with no runs or walks against him while striking out six, another career-high. He earned the win with his effort to move to 2-0 on the season and is slated to make his first A-10 start this weekend. Classmate Andrew Ayers was also impressive Tuesday at Canisius, earning the win in his hometown of Buffalo as he also set career highs in innings (3.2) and strikeouts (six) while shutting out the Griffins to allow the Bonnies to rally for a rivalry midweek win. The victory in relief was the first of Ayers' collegiate career.

LITTLE BOMBS
Morgan Little hit his first three Division I home runs in last Sunday's doubleheader vs. Dayton. His first round-tripper was a grand slam that helped the Bonnies rally for an 11-10 victory. He also hit two two-run homers on the day as well. He followed that up with a key ground-rule double in Bona's 10-run eighth inning rally at Canisius Tuesday.

WHO'S HOT

• Jackson DeJohn is hitting .429 (15-for-35) with two homers and nine RBIs and a .574 on-base percentage in the last 10 games, all starts.
• Adam Rankie is hitting .404 in the last 10 contests (19-for 47) with 13 RBIs.
• Kyle Caccamise is hitting at a .385 clip (10-for-26) in the last 10 games.
• Bobby Finn has posted a 1.00 ERA in his last four appearances, allowing just one earned run with three walks and 10 strikeouts over nine innings.
• Andrew Ayers has a 1.35 ERA over his last five appearances including 6.2 innings.
• Michael Salina has a tough luck 0-2 record in his last two starts, but a 3.60 ERA while allowing only four earned runs in 10 innings with 10 strikeouts.

 ABOUT VCU

• The Rams lead the Atlantic 10 in staff ERA this year at 4.78 with 273 strikeouts as a staff.
• At the plate, VCU stands ninth in the A-10 with a .262 team batting average while their 33 total home runs are fourth and 26 stolen bases rank eighth in the conference.
• In the field, the Rams are third in the A-10 with a .972 fielding percentage.
• Brandon Eike leads VCU in average (.326), home runs (8) and RBIs (38) while Aden Hill adds a .301 average, four homers and 31 RBIs.

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