QUAKERTOWN, Pa.- On the heels of the programs sixth-consecutive PSAC East Regular Season title, the West Chester University softball team (32-17, 11-5 PSAC) will shift its attention to the PSAC Tournament beginning at 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon in Quakertown opposite the No. 2 seed from the West in Seton Hill.
Ticket prices for the Tournament will be $ 15 for the day for the first two days of competition (Wednesday and Thursday) and just $ 10 for the final two days of action (Friday and Saturday). Children 12 and under and students from PSAC Member Institutions with a current, valid ID from their Institution will be admitted free of charge.
A year ago, West Chester experienced mixed results in Quakertown in its quest to repeat as Tournament Champions after accomplishing the feat for the first time at the end of the 2017 season. West Chester captured its opening game against Cal easily on opening night before falling to Gannon the next afternoon, which dropped the Golden Rams into the loser's bracket. West Chester then had to win three games in the next day and a half defeating Shippensburg, Seton Hill and Lock Haven to setup a Championship game rematch with the Golden Knights. On Championship Saturday, the contest remained close throughout and was a true classic. Unfortunately, West Chester encountered some bad luck and a hot-hitting Gannon team that ultimately proved to be too much to overcome in the PSAC Championship game setback to Gannon. West Chester made amends for this loss a few weeks later when the purple and gold swept Gannon in the Super Regionals to advance to the National Finals in Salem, Virginia for the second time in program history. West Chester will surely be looking to duplicate its 2017 success once again in 2018 with NCAA Tournament seeding still hanging in the balance as the squad heads to Quakertown for what will be a very important week of action.
West Chester and Seton Hill are no strangers to one another once Tournament time rolls around every year. While the two teams have never met in the Regular Season they have met four times in the month of May with three of those meetings coming in Quakertown and the other in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament in 2015. In Quakertown, the Golden Rams are a perfect 3-0 against the Griffins with their most recent triumph coming in 2018 when
Cat Hammer ('18) delivered a walk off, three-run home run to lift the Golden Rams over the Griffins and set up a meeting with Lock Haven for the chance to play for a PSAC Championship once again. Additionally, West Chester has eight-run ruled Seton Hill in two out of their three meetings in Quakertown as the Golden Rams prevailed 9-1 in their first meeting in 2015 before winning 8-0 in the 2017 edition of this matchup.
In 2019, West Chester has had an up-and-down season to say the least as the Golden Rams were amongst the first teams in Division II to begin their season at the NFCA Division II Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida where the Golden Rams were tough-luck losers falling in all five contest to return home with a record of 0-5. This early skid did little to dampen the Golden Rams spirits, however, as the purple and gold quickly rebounded with a nine-game winning streak to improve to 9-5 on the season midway through their trip back to the Sunshine State on Spring Break. Thanks to this winning streak, West Chester was able to return North boasting an 11-10 record as the Golden Rams readied for the rigors of PSAC East competition. The first week back, West Chester swept four non-conference foes in Pace, Chestnut Hill, Chowan, and Jefferson before seeing this winning streak come to its conclusion against Wilmington on Tuesday, March 26
th in what was the Golden Rams final tune-up before kicking off PSAC East play at Kutztown on Friday the 29
th.
In its PSAC East opening weekend against Kutztown and Shippensburg, West Chester managed to go 3-1 with a sweep of Kutztown and a split with Shippensburg to put itself in the Driver's Seat of the Eastern Division in the early going. Following this hot start, West Chester recorded a pair of splits with East Stroudsburg while also splitting with Kutztown and Shippensburg with a sweep of Millersville in the middle, which placed the Golden Rams at 9-5 in PSAC East play entering the final week of the Regular Season. In need of a sweep of Millersville to capture the PSAC East title on Senior Day, West Chester did just that as the Golden Rams cruised past the Marauders to sweep the season series and capture the Division once again in 2019.
Inside the circle, junior pitcher
Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) has become the Ace that West Chester needed to replace
Amanda Houck who had graduated at the end of last season. Gearhart has been spectacular as of late as she has pitched to a 15-6 record with an ERA of just 1.58, which ranks her second in the league in ERA and fourth in the league in victories. Gearhart's ERA also currently ranks seventh in single-season program history just .08 behind Houck's ERA from the 2017 Tournament Championship season. Additionally, West Chester has benefited greatly from the emergence of
Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) and
Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) who possess 7-4 and 6-4 records, respectively while Kavanagh also leads the team in saves with three saves on the year.
Kelly Tinsman (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) has also been a reliable, veteran arm for the Golden Rams young rotation as she has pitched to a 4-3 record on the season to help provide depth in the rotation.
Offensively, West Chester has not missed a beat from an offensive standpoint in 2019 thanks in large part to the breakout seasons currently being enjoyed by junior
Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) and senior
Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson). Maseth currently leads the team in batting average as she is batting .388 with 64 hits and 48 RBI (second in the PSAC in RBI) while McCollester has provided the offensive firepower with a .365 batting average and seven home runs on the year along with a league-best 52 RBI. 52 RBI is good enough to place McCollester in a tie for third in team history in single-season RBI with former catcher
Cat Hammer ('18) who finished the 2017 season with 52 RBI of her own.
Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) was a constant over the course of the last two years and with the exception of a position change, the 2019 season has been no different for the junior infielder. Garber currently ranks second on the team in batting average and hits with a .386 average and 60 hits while her 46 runs scored leads the team and ranks second in the league heading to Quakertown. Garber has also enjoyed a bit of history in 2019 as she became just the seventh Golden Ram to join the 200-hit club and she currently ranks in a tie for fourth in team history in hits with 215 just 29 shy of the program record.
Seton Hill with the lone exception of a brief five-game skid has been a tough team to crack through the 2019 season as the Griffins enter play with a record of 28-16 overall and 13-7 in PSAC West action. Seton Hill kicked off its season by going 15-9 overall and 1-1 in PSAC action through the first two months of the season before going 13-7 overall and 12-6 in PSAC play during the month of April to finish second in the West behind only the Reigning PSAC Tournament Champion in Gannon. The Griffins led the West for much of the 2019 season but a 3-3 end to the season with a pair of losses to Gannon and a loss to Cal (Pa.) on the final day of the regular season spelled doom for the Griffins as they fell to the second spot while Gannon captured the Division. Senior pitcher Devyn Terry has been the ace of the staff for Seton Hill this year as she has pitched to a record of 15-6 as well with an ERA of 2.78. Most recently, Terry celebrated her senior-day with a no-hitter to take game one from Cal by a final score of 1-0. Skyla Greco has also been an option in the circle for Seton Hill this year as she has pitched to a record of 11-9 with an ERA of 3.66 to help bolster the Seton Hill rotation. Offensively, Seton Hill has turned to sophomore utility player Jenna Osikowicz who currently leads the team in batting average (.410) and hits (55). Junior catcher Chelsey Rohan has provided the firepower in the Griffin offense this year as she has recorded six home runs although she possesses a batting average of just .288 entering the PSAC Tournament.
With a win this afternoon, West Chester will advance to face the winner of the Bloomsburg vs Kutztown/Edinboro contest at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon while a loss will force the Golden Rams to win twice a day for the remainder of the Tournament if they are to have a chance to reclaim the PSAC Tournament Championship Trophy.
