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Box Score 2
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Anthony Salomone (Dillsburg, Pa./North York) homered in each game, and West Chester's pitching allowed just 12 combined hits, as the visiting Golden Rams swept a PSAC East baseball doubleheader from host Lock Haven by scores of 5-2 and 7-1 Sunday afternoon at Foundation Field.
West Chester (27-10, 17-7 PSAC East) moved back into a tie for second place in the Eastern Division standings of the PSAC with East Stroudsburg. Those two schools will close out the 2016 regular-season next weekend with a four-game series. Lock Haven drops to 18-26 overall and 6-18 in league play. The Golden Rams swept the four-game series with the Bald Eagles this weekend.
Salomone hit a two-run homer in the top of the fifth inning of game one that erased a 1-0 deficit. Lock Haven had taken the lead in the bottom half of the fourth inning, before Salomone put the visitors on top for good. West Chester added three more in the sixth on RBI singles from
Nick Bateman (Aston, Pa./Malvern) and Salomone to push the lead to 5-1. That's all starter
Mike Cipolla (Newark, Del./Charter School of Delaware) would need to improve to 6-3 on the season. He was strong through six-plus innings, scattering seven hits and surrendering both Haven runs while striking out two and not walking anybody.
Josh McClain (Tunkhannock. Pa./Tunkhannock) came on in the seventh inning for his fifth save of the season.
Salomone finished the opener 2-for-3 with the home run and three RBI.
Zach Sheranko (Tannersville, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) went 3-for-3 in the first game. Bateman and
Clay Harwick (Lansdale, Pa./Methacton) each were 2-for-3 as well. In fact, the first four hitters in West Chester's order combined to go 2-for-14 while hitters 5-8 were a combined 9-for-12.
In the nightcap, Salomone hit a solo shot in the fourth inning to increase West Chester's lead to 3-0. The Rams had plated single tallies in each of the first two frames. Sheranko singled up the middle to score a run in the first, and
Drew Diehl (Unionville, Pa./Unionville) doubled in a run in the second.
West Chester put the game away with a four-run seventh that pushed the lead to 7-1.
Tyler Coleman (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) hit a pinch-hit, two-run double, and Bateman chased him home with a single up the middle. Diehl laster in the stanza smashed his team-leading seventh home run of the season. He came a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in the game. He went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBI.
Gernert (Lenhartsville, Pa./Kutztown) was masterful on the mound to improve to 7-0 on the year. He threw a complete-game five-hitter, walking two and striking out seven.
West Chester returns home to Serpico Stadium for a non-league nine-inning affair against Wilmington (Del.) Monday beginning at 3 p.m.
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