QUAKERTOWN, Pa.- On the heels of an impressive 5-2 victory over Seton Hill to open the PSAC Tournament, West Chester will look to open the Tournament 2-0 opposite PSAC East rival Kutztown with that contest set to begin at 11:30 a.m.
Tickets for the second day of the Tournament will remain $15 for the day with the tickets with the price dropping to $10 per day for the final two days of competition (Friday & Saturday).
On Wednesday afternoon, West Chester kicked off its PSAC Tournament campaign on an unseasonably cool day in Quakertown opposite the No. 2 seed from the PSAC West in Seton Hill. West Chester and Seton Hill locked in a close battle for the first two and a half innings but in the third inning, West Chester finally broke through thanks to a two-run blast from Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson), which gave the Golden Rams an early 2-0 lead. Seton Hill cut into the deficit during the fourth with a solo shot of its own before West Chester led by a pair of RBI singles from Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) and McCollester answered back with three more runs to claim a commanding 5-1 lead. Seton Hill got one more run back during the late innings but it was not enough to overcome the early deficit and by all accounts masterful pitching from the Golden Ram staff. Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) got the start in the circle and lasted four innings surrendering just the one run while striking out a pair before exiting in favor of Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) who finished the contest for the Golden Rams surrendering just one run while striking out four to earn her fourth save of the season.
Maseth continues to lead the team in hitting as she is currently batting .399 on the year with 67 hits, 44 runs, and 49 RBI while McCollester is close behind batting .373 while also leading the team in home runs with eight home runs on the season after her pivotal long ball earlier this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Gearhart enters this afternoon's matchup with an overall record of 16-6 overall and an ERA of just 1.15. Gearhart is also 6-2 in conference play this season with a 2.15 ERA through her nine appearances (eight starts) against PSAC competition. Against Kutztown, Gearhart has been tough to crack as she has scattered just nine hits and two runs over her 14 innings of work against the Golden Bears in 2019 while also striking out seven to keep a powerful offense at bay.
West Chester has had the better of the matchups vs Kutztown in 2019 as the Golden Rams managed to take three of four from the Golden Bears in the 2019 regular season with a sweep at Kutztown in March and a split at West Chester midway through the month of April. West Chester has outscored the Golden Bears by a 23-15 margin over the course of the previous four meetings with the largest offensive output by the Golden Bears coming in their victory over the Golden Rams in April when Kutztown captured that contest by a 9-5 final.
The Golden Rams may also find comfort in the fact that the team that enters play after playing at 6 p.m. the day before has struggled as of late as the last team to capture that back-to-back matchup was Bloomsburg in 2016 in the midst of the Huskies run to the PSAC Tournament Championship during that season.
Kutztown enters tomorrow's contest coming off a long day of softball on Wednesday afternoon as the Golden Bears had to defeat Edinboro at 12 p.m. and Bloomsburg at 6 p.m. in order to reach this point. Kutztown encountered very little trouble  offensively on day one as the Golden Bears captured both contests in five innings outscoring its opponents 24-1 over the course of these two victories. Big innings were the story for the Golden Bears on Wednesday afternoon as Kutztown used a seven-run first inning to race out to an early lead in the victory over Edinboro while it was a nine-run third inning that led the Golden Bears to an upset victory over the Huskies of Bloomsburg.
Bridget Bailey has been the Golden Bears best option in the circle in 2019 as she has pitched to a record of 17-6 with an ERA of 2.65 over the course of her 158.1 innings of work in the circle for the Golden Bears. Bailey has also had the most success against West Chester of any pitcher on the staff as she has pitched to a 1-0 record against the Golden Rams, however, she has been far from unhittable in her appearances against the purple and gold as West Chester has managed to record eight hits for a total of five runs off of her over the course of her 9.1 innings of work against West Chester. Kutztown's other primary option in the circle is Amber Brugger who enters this contest with an overall record of 12-8 and a 3.51 ERA, however, she is 0-2 vs West Chester having allowed 15 runs to score against her when facing the purple and gold..
Offensively, Kutztown looks to one of the most dangerous offensive threats in the PSAC in 2019 in Sara Keeny most major offensive categories including batting average (.519), hits (94), runs scored (60), on base percentage (.565), and triples (7). This is a player that West Chester will surely need to manage carefully if the Golden Rams are to down the Golden Bears for the fourth time in five tries tomorrow afternoon. Despite the threat that Keeny poses, it should be noted that she has struggled mightily against Gearhart in 2019 as she is just 1-for-8 with that lone-hit being a single off of the junior transfer for WCU.
 With a victory tomorrow afternoon, West Chester will punch its ticket to the semifinals on Friday afternoon in need of just one victory in order to earn a spot in the PSAC Championship series for the third year in a row. However, a loss tomorrow afternoon will require West Chester to play again in the final game of the day tomorrow to fight for its PSAC Tournament lives before having to potentially win four games in two days in order to lift the PSAC Tournament Championship trophy once again in 2019.
