Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
West Chester, Shippensburg split
Golden Rams falter late in nightcap to fall one game behind Millersville in PSAC East
Seemingly on the precipice of a doubleheader sweep that would have put the West Chester University baseball squad one giant step closer to capturing at least a share of the PSAC East title, the Golden Rams faltered late in the nightcap and had to settle for a disheartening split against Shippensburg on Thursday at Serpico Stadium.
West Chester followed a solid 5-2 victory in the opener with a hitting barrage in game two that yielded a seven-run fourth inning to put the Rams in command, 9-2.
But over the course of the next three innings, it all fell apart as WCU’s hitting went silent, and the pitching and defense faltered.
It resulted in a heartbreaking 10-9 setback that will probably cost the Rams a piece of the division crown.
“We just got sloppy,” said senior first baseman Mike Ferrara. “I think we got up (9-2) and mentally let down a bit.
“We let this one get out of control. We should have won the game.”
Ranked 16th nationally, the Rams are now 16-7 in the division (28-10 overall) and fall a game behind Millersville with one to play in the regular season. West Chester entered the day in a three-way tie for first place along with the Marauders and Shippensburg.
“We just let one slip,” said WCU head coach Mike LaRosa. “Out of their 10 runs, five were unearned. (Shippensburg) capitalized on our mistakes.
“Once we kind of let that (9-2) lead slip, we got a little tense and started chasing pitches out of the zone. We just didn’t stick to our approach quite as good as we usually do.”
The Rams will wrap up the regular season with a single game at Shippensburg (16-7, 26-21) on Friday. The winner could nab a share of the PSAC East title if Millers
ville (17-6) falls on Friday to Mansfield.
“It’s tough. Our guys know the implications of every game,” LaRosa acknowledged. “But to be truthful, I think this could be good for us going into the postseason.
“We want to be in big games and there is going to be more and more pressure as we continue. So believe it or not, I think that (game two) was a good loss. We can learn a lot from it.”
West Chester has already clinched a spot in the PSAC Playoffs and have won 11 of the last 13. The Rams
looked like they were going to win their ninth straight in game two following the big fourth inning rally in which 10 batters went to the plate and six delivered hits.
The biggest was a tworun homer by Ferrara to make it 9-2. But WCU’s Jack Miles and Joe Kalecki preceded it with a two-run single and a two-run double, respectively, to chase Raiders starter Kaleb Sophy.
But the Rams did not fare as well against either of the Raiders relievers, who mowed down 11 batters in a row, and only surrendered one combined hit to the final 19 batters they faced.
In the meantime, Shippensburg kept plugging away at the plate, includ*ing a four-run rally in the fourth and two more in the fifth. All six runs came with two out, and with the aid of three West Chester errors.
Clinging to a 9-8 lead, the Rams then surrendered the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth even though the Raiders did not have a hit, but a walk, a hit batter, a steal, two wild pitches and another error.
Zach Wright started the ninth inning with a leadoff double for West Chester, but he never made it to third base.
“We played good for about three and a half innings,” LaRosa said of the nightcap. “We put ourselves in position at the end to tie it and just didn’t get the timely hit, which we’ve been doing most of the season.
“To Shippenburg’s credit, they kept battling pitch to pitch.”
In contrast, the game one triumph was textbook: solid pitching and timely hitting. Ferrara drove in a run in the first, and then the Rams added four more in the second thanks in part to an RBI double by Sean Szestowicki and a run-scoring hit by Wright.
With a 5-0 lead, starting pitcher Braeden Fausnaught allowed just two runs and four hits in fourplus innings of work, and then reliever Dylan Howanitz wrapped up the save by surrendering just one hit the rest of the way.
“In the games we win, we make our opponents earn their runs,” LaRosa pointed out. “We did that in the first game. In the second game, we just didn’t do that.”
A graduate student, Wright went 3-for-4 in the doubleheader, reached base six times and scored two runs. And in game two, he broke West Chester’s single season mark for steals with his 37th swipe of the year. In the twinbill, Ferrara was 5-for-8 at the plate and drove in five runs.
“(Ferrara) was really locked in,” LaRosa said. “He put some good swings on the ball and that is Mike. He is such an advanced hitter, and he comes up with big hit after big hit.”
Despite the big day at the plate, Ferrara wasn’t pleased to see his team wak away from the afternoon with a split.
“I don’t care how I do, I just hate losing,” he said.
“We have to get a win (Friday), but this is a tough one. We are just going to roll into the PSAC Tournament and then on to the NCAAs. We are going to take what is ours.”
And then, for emphasis, he added: “We are not even close to being done yet.”