The North Carolina Tar Heels first matchup in the Chapel Hill Regional is against the VCU Rams, in what could be argued is a revenge game for the Tar Heels after the basketball mishap in March. The teams meet each other in the second game on Friday with the winner advancing to play the winner of the Tennessee/East Carolina matchup and the loser facing the loser of that same matchup in an elimination game.
Here is a quick breakdown of the VCU Rams baseball team.
The Rams are playing in their fifteenth
NCAA tournament and their first since 2024. VCU was picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic 10 conference this year after going 17-37 in 2025 and finishing eleventh. The Rams instead won 37 games this season and finished third overall in the conference. They followed up that regular season with a 5-1 showing in the Atlantic 10 tournament, beating the second-seeded Richmond Spiders and the first-seeded Saint Joseph’s Hawks before getting revenge against the fifth-seeded Rhode Island Rams in the championship game, winning an 18-16 shootout and earning the autobid to the tournament.
The VCU Rams are coached by former VCU pitcher Sean Thompson, who is in his second year of coaching his alma mater (this is also his first head coaching job). Thompson is 54-60 overall with the aforementioned 17-win season last year followed by the huge improvement this season.
The Rams’ best hitter is sophomore Jacob Lee, the 6’2” catcher from Chesterfield, Virginia. Lee had a big season for VCU, leading the team in batting average, OPS, runs, hits, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, walks, and on base percentage. He also finished tied for first on the team with 56 RBIs.
The Rams best pitcher this season is redshirt senior Patrick Stietz, a towering 6’8” right-hander from Peoria, Arizona, who led the team in innings pitched and strike outs, going 7-3 with a 3.01 ERA on the season. Senior Zach Peters, a 6’3” right-hander from North Haven, Connecticut, led the team with six saves while posting a 1.60 ERA.
All in all, the Rams got hot at the right time to win their conference tournament and to sneak into the NCAA tournament with the coveted autobid. These are the kind of teams that can do damage in these double-elimination regionals, but they can also be cannon fodder for teams that have been more consistent throughout the year. Which way this team will go is still a question that won’t be answered until after this weekend.
