Box Score
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - West Chester University's nationally ranked baseball squad topped University of the Sciences (Phila.), 8-2, in the championship game of the 10th annual Bill Giles Classic inside Citizen's Bank Park on a comfortable Tuesday afternoon.
West Chester (32-9) captured its seventh Bill Giles title, including the last three consecutively. The Golden Rams are now 5-0 at Citizen's Bank Park since it opened in 2004. USP (4-33) dropped the Bill Giles championship game to WCU for the second time in the last three years.
Charlie Kelly smashed a solo home run off the facade of the upper deck in the top of the eighth inning, and Kevin McGrath cleared the 387-foot sign in left-center in the fifth for a two-run shot to pace the Rams' offense Tuesday. Both Kelly and McGrath finished 2-for-4 on the day with a pair of runs scored. McGrath posted three RBI.
West Chester broke open a scoreless tie with two outs in the top of the third inning when Nick Spisak reached on an error by USP's first baseman when the Devils' third baseman threw over and the ball went through the webbing of the first baseman's glove and died in the grass in foul territory.
McGrath, who was running from first on the grounder, came all the way around to score. Joe Wendle and Kyle Orensky followed with back-to-back doubles as West Chester took a 3-0 lead on three unearned runs.
West Chester made it 5-0 on McGrath's two-run blast in the fith and added another in the sixth on a RBI single from Brandon Wolfe that scored Kelly.
After Kelly's shot in the eighth, Wolfe doubled into the right field corner and would later score on a double from McGrath.
Seven different West Chester pitchers scattered six hits over the nine innings. Dave Stieg (4-2) picked up the win in the start. He pitched two innings without giving up a run. John Hopkins came on and pitched two scoreless frames as well, followed by one shutout inning from Opalka.
Craig Carroll was touched for a pair of runs in the sixth. Jared Lehman, Dan Doyle and Carmen Daddario all pitched a single inning without allowing a hit, retiring the last 10 batters of the game in order.
Luke Peyton (0-3) suffered the loss for USP, despite pitching very effectively. He allowed just two earned runs on five hits, walking two and striking out five in four innings of work.
West Chester will rest up until Friday when it opens a four-game series with PSAC East rival Shippensburg on the final weekend of the regular season. The Golden Rams are 14-6 in conference play and tied with Kutztown for the Eastern Division lead heading into the last weekend of the season.
