No. 2 West Chester Sweeps IUP At DII Baseball Challenge

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

DINWIDDIE, Va. – West Chester scored 13 runs on 16 hits in the opener, and then rode the arm of freshman hurler Zach Rice (Honey Brook, Pa./Twin Valley) to a one-hit shutout win in the night cap as the second-ranked Golden Rams swept a non-league doubleheader from PSAC West opponent Indiana (Pa.) Saturday afternoon at Shephard Field on the second day of the Division II Baseball Challenge.
 
Zach Sheranko (Tannersville, Pa./Pocono Mtn West) drove in five runs in the opener and hit a solo home run for the only tally of the contest to lead West Chester to the 13-2 win in game one and 1-0 victory in game two.
 
Rice went the distance in the nightcap, allowing just three base runners all game. He struck out four and hit two batters to go along with the one hit. IUP's No. 9 hitter singled to lead off the sixth and spoil the no-hitter. Sheranko hit a solo HR in the second inning for the game's only run.
 
In the opener, West Chester jumped on IUP earl with three runs in the first, one in the second and four more in the third. The Golden Rams kept the pressure on by scoring one more in the fourth and a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.
 
Sheranko delivered a bases loaded, two-run double, and Corey Webb (Easton, Pa./Easton) followed up with a RBI double of his own to put WCU out in front 3-0 after the first half inning of the game.
 
Jared Melone (North Wales, Pa.,/North Penn) singled in a run in the second. Then, West Chester strung together four straight hits in the third to plate four runs. Collin McGeary (Bethlehem, Pa./Bethlehem Catholic) singled in the first run, then Justin Horn (Willow Grove, Pa./Upper Dublin) doubled in a run, and Joey Coyle (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) singled in two to close out the frame.
 
Sheranko followed a leadoff double by Shane Dressler (York Haven, Pa./Red Land) in the fifth that chased home a run, hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth and walked with the bases loaded in the seventh to account for his five-RBI day. He knocked in a run in every at bat in game one.
 
Webb finished game one 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI.
 
Mike Cipolla (1-0) was the beneficiary on the hill of all the scoring. He went six innings, allowing one run on four hits, walking three and striking out five. Andrew Scarpelli (Lewisberry, Pa./Trinity) finished up, yielding one unearned run on two hits. He struck out two.
 
West Chester finishes up play at the Division II Challenge with a single game Sunday against St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC), which was one of the other seven teams in Grand Prairie, Texas, last May, along with the Golden Rams, at the NCAA Division II Championships.