INSTITUTE, W.V.- After opening the Regional Tournament with a pair of victories over Gannon and Winston Salem State, the West Chester University softball team (36-19) currently finds itself just one win away from advancing back to the Super Regionals for the third year in a row. West Chester will face host institution West Virginia State on Saturday afternoon beginning at noon in need of just one victory while West Virginia State will need to win twice once again dropping its Tournament opener to Winston Salem State by a final of 3-0 on Thursday afternoon. As of now, the two teams are scheduled to play just once tomorrow afternoon should West Chester prevail in the first game of the afternoon. However, if West Virginia State can continue its impressive run and knock the Golden Rams off in the opener tomorrow afternoon, the two teams will have to do battle once again later in the afternoon in a "winner take all" matchup.
Most recently, West Chester captured a high-scoring victory over CIAA foe and seven-seed Winston Salem State earlier on Friday morning by a final score of 12-4. The contest was close throughout the early innings as the two sides traded runs to open the contest but West Chester eventually pulled away to win by a final score of 12-4.
In the top of the first, West Chester jumped out to an early two-run lead thanks to an RBI fielders choice from
Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) and an RBI double from
Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick), which gave West Chester the early advantage. This lead was short-lived as Winston Salem State answered back with two runs of its own to even the score at 2-2.
In the top of the second, West Chester added four more runs of its own via a pair of fielding errors by the shortstop, an RBI single from McCollester and a daring steal of home by
Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster), which gave the Golden Rams an early lead they would never relinquish. In the bottom of the second, Winston Salem State answered back with two runs of its own, which trimmed the deficit to 6-4. This is all Winston Salem State would get as
Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) settled down at this point as she went the distance for the Golden Rams scattering just four hits and four runs (three earned) while striking out seven to lift West Chester to the victory.
The Golden Ram offense, however, was far from finished as the purple and gold plated six more runs before the conclusion of the contest to earn the victory by a final of 12-4. West Chester scored two more runs in the third thanks to an RBI double from Maseth and an RBI groundout from McCollester, which extended the lead to 8-4. West Chester added another two runs during the sixth inning of play via another RBI double from Maseth who came around to score on a wild pitch to claim a commanding 10-4 lead. West Chester pushed its final two runs across during the seventh thanks to an RBI double from
Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) and an RBI single from
Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep).
West Virginia State enters off a pair of victories over Gannon and Winston Salem State that have enabled the Yellow Jackets to earn a spot in the Regional Championship game despite dropping the Opening game of the Tournament two days ago. After watching West Chester dispatch Winston Salem State in game one of the day, West Virginia State fought its way past Gannon by a final of 1-0 with the lone run of the contest and first of the Tournament for the hosts coming in the sixth inning courtesy of an RBI triple to right center, which proved to be the decisive run. This run appeared to rouse the West Virginia State bats as offense was at anything but a premium in the nightcap as the Yellow Jackets scored seven runs including five in the opening frame to roll past Winston Salem State and earn a spot in the Championship game.
Inside the circle, West Virginia State is led by Kelsey Murphy who enters play boasting a record of 10-3 with a miniscule 1.33 ERA while Emily Thompson and Emilee Moore are close behind with records of 9-5 and 9-4, respectively. Thompson maintains a slightly better ERA at 1.94 while Moore is close behind at 2.00. Emilee Walker is also a dangerous option inside the circle for the Yellow Jackets as she currently ranks fourth on the team in wins and ERA at 7-3 with an ERA of just 2.09.
Offensively, eight of West Virginia States starters boast averages north of .315 on the season led by Paige Scruggs who is currently batting .400 on the year with 37 runs and 36 RBI to her credit entering Saturday afternoon's matchups. Brittany Allison is the biggest power threat in the WVSU lineup as she currently sits atop the team leaderboard in home runs with 10 long balls on the season and a .341 batting average to this point in 2019. Kasey Murphy is also more than capable of punishing opposing pitching staffs if a mistake is made as she ranks just above Allison in batting average at .370 while ranking tied for second on the team in home runs with six long balls on the year. Murphy is tied with Lebsock for the second spot on the home run leaderboard while also coming in as the final Yellow Jacket starter above .315 batting .318 on the season.
With a victory, West Chester will await the victor of the West Liberty regional, which has narrowed its field down to West Liberty, Shepherd, and 2019 PSAC Tournament Champion Lock Haven. Shepherd is in need of just one victory to advance to the Super Regionals while West Liberty and Lock Haven will do battle once again this evening for the right to advance to the Pod Championship against Shepherd on Saturday afternoon.
