West Chester Splits Doubleheader With No. 13 East Stroudsburg

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – West Chester University split a PSAC East baseball doubleheader with host East Stroudsburg University at Mitterling Field Saturday afternoon on the final day of the regular season.
 
West Chester (32-11, 20-8 PSAC East) learned that it clinched the second seed out of the Eastern Division despite game one's loss when word got around that Lock Haven had defeated Mansfield, 4-3 in 8 innings, in the first game of that doubleheader. East Stroudsburg (35-14, 18-10) will be the third seed out of the Eastern Division when the PSAC Tournament begins on May 8.
 
The Golden Rams scored in six of the seven innings in game two, taking a 2-1 lead that it would not relinquish in the third inning. Meanwhile, Andrew Gernert (Lenhartsville, Pa./Kutztown) kept the Warriors' off the scoreboard for the majority of the game to remain perfect on the season at 8-0. West Chester scored single tallies in the first and third and fourth innings, before putting up two in the fifth, three in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
 
Gernert worked in and out of trouble all day, scattering 11 hits over six innings, but only yielding a pair of runs. He walked one and struck out two. He also hit a batter. Mike O'Neill (Brick, N.J./Brick Twp.) came on in the seventh to finish out the game.
 
The first four hitters in West Chester's lineup each registered two hits while Shane Dressler (York Haven, Pa./Red Land) added three RBI to his stat line in game one. He would finish with four hits combined in the doubleheader.
 
Tyler Coleman (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) hit a pinch-hit, two-run double in the sixth. Eight of the nine hitters in West Chester's lineup had a hit. Bill Ford (Parkside, Pa./Malvern Prep) hit his fourth home run of the season to give the Rams the lead for good, 2-1.
 
In the opener, it was all East Stroudsburg as the hosts scored five runs in the second to break a 1-1 tie after one. Then, the Warriors put up a four-spot in the fourth, after the Golden Rams had scored two more runs in the third and fourth to crawl back within three. ESU would tack on two more tallies along the way for the 12-3 win.
 
Dressler and Justin Roman (Berwyn, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) each had a pair of hits for the Golden Rams. Mike Cipolla (Newark, Del./Charter School of Wilmington) suffered the loss on the mound (6-4) in game one.
 
The PSAC Tournament begins one week from today when the top four teams in both the Eastern Division and the Western Division descend upon Butler, Pa., and Kelly Automotive Park. The winner of that postseason tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.