KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The No. 17 West Chester University baseball team earned a split against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Kutztown University on Saturday, taking game one of the doubleheader 2-0 in a pitchers' duel before dropping the nightcap 6-5 on a walk-off home run in the seventh inning by KU's Dariel Richardson.
The Golden Rams now sit at 24-11 overall behind a 13-7 mark in conference games, while host Kutztown moves to 15-16 on the year and 9-11 in league play following Saturday's split.
Game One: West Chester - 2 | Kutztown - 0
Saturday's opener proved to be a pitching showcase, as both West Chester's
Mike Cipolla (NEWARK, DE/CHARTER SCHOOL OF WILMINGTON) and the Golden Bears' Anthony DeVito tossed complete games. With such impressive pitching performances from both sides, it was no surprise that offense was at a premium to start the afternoon. Both teams combined for just seven hits in game one and the Golden Rams managed to escape the opener with a 2-0 victory over Kutztown – giving West Chester its third shutout win of the season.
- Both Justin Horn (WILLOW GROVE, PA./UPPER DUBLIN) and Nick Ward (KENNETT SQUARE, PA./UNIONVILLE) got hit by a pitch to start the game and Jared Melone (NORTH WALES, PA./NORTH PENN) followed with a walk to load the bases with no outs for the Golden Rams in the top of the first.
- Shane Dressler (YORK HAVEN, PA./RED LAND) put the first run on the board with a fly out to left – scoring Horn – to place the visitors on top 1-0 after the first inning of action.
- Both teams combined for just three hits over the next four frames and the score remained 1-0 in favor of West Chester entering the sixth.
- Melone led off the sixth by connecting on his 11th double of the season and he was brought home two batters later by a single down the left field line by Drew Jarmuz (KENNETT SQUARE, PA./UNIONVILLE) to extend the West Chester advantage to 2-0 through 6.5 innings.
- Up 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Cipolla retired the side in order to clinch the two-run victory for the Golden Rams to start the day.
Ward, Melone, Jarmuz, and
Jon Hansen (CHERRY HILL, N.J./GEORGE MASON) all collected one hit in game one with Jarmuz and Dressler each contributing a RBI in the victory.
On the mound, Cipolla (5-1) got his second complete game victory of the season after giving up no runs on three hits with three strikeouts in 7.0 innings pitched.
Game Two: West Chester – 5 | Kutztown - 6
After a slow start to the afternoon, the bats for both teams woke up in game two as the squads combined for 20 hits (11 – WCU | 9 – Kutztown) in the nightcap. The Golden Rams held a 5-1 advantage through four innings in game two, but the host Golden Bears managed to rattle off five unanswered runs over the last three innings – including Richardson's walk off two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh – to grab the 6-5 come-from-behind victory in game two.
- West Chester struck first in game two, as Melone singled in Horn before Hansen connected on a two-RBI single through the left side to put the visitors in front 3-0 in the first.
- Up three in the fourth inning, Corey Webb (EASTON, PA./EASTON) scored on a wild pitch to extend WCU's lead to 4-0 prior to Melone connecting on his PSAC-leading 65th hit of the season – a RBI single scoring Horn – to stretch the visitors cushion to 5-0 through 4.5 innings of action.
- Following the scorching start, West Chester's offense came to a halt over the next two frames, as the Golden Rams only managed to record one hit across the fifth and sixth.
- Kutztown manufactured four runs between the fourth and seventh inning and the scoreboard read 5-4 in favor of West Chester entering the final frame.
- The Golden Rams were able to notch two hits in seventh but both runners would be left stranded and the score remained 5-4 heading into the home half of the seventh.
- With two outs and the tying run on first, Richardson connected on his team-leading fifth long ball of the year to score Ryan Weller from third and give the Golden Bears the 6-5 win and the series split at home.
Hansen went 3-for-4 with two RBI in the loss, while Melone added two hits and two RBI of his own in game two. Following Saturday's action, Melone has now recorded at least one hit in 29 games this season and the junior is currently riding a ten-game hitting streak ahead of West Chester's contest on Tuesday (April 24) against No. 23 St. Thomas Aquinas in New York.
Reliever
Michael Deitz (AVON GROVE, PA./AVON GROVE) got the loss in game two to drop to 2-2 on the year after giving up the winning home run to Kutztown in the seventh frame. Starter
Bill Ford (PARKSIDE, PA./MALVERN PREP) went 4.2 innings on Saturday and surrendered two runs (both earned) on five hits with three strikeouts.
