Softball Ready to Open National Finals vs West Florida on Thursday Afternoon

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DENVER, C0.-For the second year in a row and just the third time in program history, the West Chester University softball team (39-20) is preparing to play for a Division II Softball National Championship in the National Finals beginning on Thursday afternoon at the Regency Athletic Complex in Denver, Colorado. West Chester is the only team in the eight-team field that is returning to the Finals after advancing to the National Finals in Salem a year ago where the Golden Rams went 0-2 as they were edged in a pair of low-scoring contests. West Chester will kick off its National Finals campaign against a somewhat familiar foe in the University of West Florida who West Chester fell to by a final of 8-3 earlier this season in the first-known meeting between the two programs. First pitch in this contest is set for 4 p.m. local (Mountain Time)/6 p.m. eastern from the Regency Athletic Complex.

Ticket prices for adults will be $35 for an all-session pass and $10 for a single-session pass while the cost will be $20 for an all-session pass and just $6 for a single-session pass for seniors, students, and youth. Fans may purchase tickets online via the following links-(single session-https://bit.ly/2JVnPI3 or all-session-https://bit.ly/2VTWo8E) or at the gate on gameday. Additionally, fans should visit the following link- https://roadrunnersathletics.com/sports/2016/8/30/parking-code.aspx on each gameday morning in order to get free parking at the facility.

Additionally, there will be a free watch party for the game at Barnaby's in West Chester beginning at 5:30 in advance of the 6 p.m. first pitch.

A year ago, West Chester advanced to the National Finals after an impressive 5-0 run through the Atlantic Regional Tournament to setup a meeting with Angelo State in the opening round of the 2018 edition of the Tournament. West Chester and Angelo State battled throughout the afternoon in what was a defensive battle but the Rambelles proved to be a little too much to handle in the 1-0 setback. The lone tally of the contest came during the fifth inning off an RBI single that proved to be enough to drop West Chester to 0-1 to begin the Finals. The next afternoon, West Chester battled with another talented foe in North Georgia who again managed to stymie the usually dangerous West Chester offense in a 4-0 setback that brought the purple and golds magical 2018 season to its conclusion.

West Chester will surely be looking to avoid these results in the 2019 edition of the National Finals and recent history may suggest that the Golden Rams have a strong chance to do just that. In the 2018 edition of the Atlantic Regional Tournament, West Chester mustered just 31 runs in its five victories, which the Golden Rams equaled in their first three Regional games alone this season. At the conclusion of the Regional Tournament, West Chester held an impressive 46-22 advantage over its opponents with the largest offensive output against the Golden Rams coming in game two of the Super Regionals opposite Shepherd when West Chester fell by a final of 7-1.

To this point in the NCAA Tournament, West Chester ranks second in the eight-team field in batting average at a .347 clip while also leading the field in doubles per game (2.00/game) and scoring average (7.67 runs/game). Individually, Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) ranks fourth amongst all players remaining in DII Softball in batting average as she is currently batting .500 on the Tournament while Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) and Jaime Klemas (South Brunswick, N.J./South Brunswick) are tied for first atop the field in doubles on the Tournament with three doubles to their credit. Maseth also ranks third in the Nation and second amongst players remaining in the eight-team field in RBI with 10 RBI in the NCAA Tournament just one RBI behind Roxy Chapa of Texas A&M Kingsville. Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) also ranks atop of the eight-team field and second in DII in runs per game on the NCAA Tournament as she averages 1.67 runs scored per contest to this point in the Tournament.

While West Chester and West Florida are strangers to each other from a historical sense with just one meeting between the two teams in each of their respective histories, the 2019 editions of the two teams are quite familiar with one another having met in the NFCA DII Leadoff Classic to begin the 2019 season. In the leadoff classic, WCU and UWF clashed on the final day of the Classic and West Chester led for much of the contest as the Golden Rams pushed across a pair of runs to open the contest before trading runs in the fourth to claim a 3-1 lead midway through the contest. Unfortunately, this was the last time that West Chester would lead as West Florida answered back with a three-spot in the top of the fifth and four more runs during the top of the seventh to put the game on ice and cruise to an 8-3 victory over the purple and gold.

Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton) has been spectacular as of late as she has not suffered a losing decision early in the month of April and she currently boasts an impressive 4-0 record with an ERA of 3.08 and 10 strikeouts to her credit entering the National Finals. Over the course of the last two weekends, Kavanagh has bookended the Golden Rams series' as she has captured the game one victory before coming back to earn the victory needed to clinch the series or on Friday afternoon the Regional Championship. For the season, Kavanagh currently ranks second on the staff in wins with an overall record of 12-4 while also leading the way in saves with four on the season. These four saves are also enough to rank Kavanagh third in single-season program history in saves just two behind the record, which currently held by Katie Erb (6).  PSAC East Pitcher of the Year Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) has been the Golden Rams leader throughout the 2019 season as she leads the staff in a host of categories including wins (17), ERA (2.24), complete games (13), shutouts (7), and strikeouts (103). In the NCAA Tournament, Gearhart has pitched to a record of 1-1 after earning a crucial victory in the opening weekend of the Tournament over Winston Salem State before falling to Shepherd on Friday afternoon, which dropped the junior transfer to 1-1.

Offensively, West Chester has been very impressive at the plate in 2019 as the Golden Rams boast a solid .312 team batting average with six players batting north of .300 on the season. Maseth, Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson), and Garber have been the Golden Rams offensive leaders as Maseth sits atop the team in batting average (.398), hits (80), doubles (20), and triples (5). Meanwhile, McCollester's record-setting senior season has continued into the postseason with little to no sign of slowing down as McCollester now ranks second on the team in batting average at .377 while her 11 home runs and 70 RBI lead the purple and gold in each of those categories. 70 RBI also sets a new single-season record for West Chester as McCollester passes the mark previously held by Sam Ingersoll from 2010 while her 11 home runs ranks in a tie for second for the most in a single season. Additionally, McCollester's 11 home runs now gives the senior catcher 20 home runs on her career, which ranks her in a tie for fifth in team history. Finally, Garber continues to rewrite the record book for West Chester as she currently ranks third on the team in batting average batting .371 on the year while ranking second on the team in hits with 73 and leading the team in runs scored with 61. These 61 runs scored are yet another new single-season record for the junior as she breaks her own record of 59 from a season ago. Additionally, Garber is continuing her trek toward the all-time hit record of 244 as she now has 228 hits to her credit, which ranks second in program history.

No. 2 Nationally-Ranked and second-seeded West Florida has embraced the so-called "cardiac kids" mentality in 2019 as the Argos used yet another late-inning rally to earn the come from behind victory, thus, marking the fifth game in a row that West Florida has been forced to play from behind in order to capture the victory. This five-game streak dates back to Friday, May 10^th when the Argos had to earn a come from behind victory over Valdosta State in the nightcap of its Regional Pod Tournament on Friday to setup a two-game series with Tampa on Saturday afternoon. West Florida battled back in each of these next two-games before doing the same in the Super Regionals opposite Florida Tech to punch its ticket back to the National Finals in 2019 for the fourth time in program history.

Similarly to West Chester, offense has been one of the calling cards for West Florida this year as the Argos enter the National Finals batting .322 as a team led by Teala Howard who is batting .470 on the year with 95 hits and 63 runs scored. Despite these impressive totals, Howard has not hit for power with much frequency as she has just three doubles, four triples, and one home run along with 30 RBI to her credit on the season. Rhiannon Sassaman has also been an offensive threat this season batting .380 on the year with 68 hits and a team-high 50 RBI along with another team-high 15 doubles. These two players are just two of 10 every day players for West Florida to bat north of .300 on the year although they are the only two to bat above .340 on the season. Despite these impressive numbers, the West Florida offense would seem to have cooled in recent games as the Argos rank 40^th in Division II in NCAA Tournament batting average batting .230 as a team, which also ranks them last amongst the eight-team NCAA Tournament National Finals field. Additionally, West Florida ranks at the bottom of the eight-team field in runs per game during this NCAA Tournament averaging just 3.43 runs per contest, which is also 31^st in DII for the Tournament.  

Pitching depth has been a true strong suit for West Florida throughout the season as the Argos boast three pitchers with more than 10 wins on the year and they all have ERAs south of 2.25. Grace Gilbert leads the way for UWF in wins as she boasts a record of 24-4 on the year with an ERA of just 1.73 on the year. Meanwhile, Kelsey Sweatt leads the team in ERA with a mark of 1.54 while ranking second on the team in wins with a record of 19-3 on the season. Finally, Tori Perkins possesses a record of 10-1 with an ERA of 2.21 to add vital depth to the West Florida pitching staff.

With a win this afternoon, West Chester will improve to 1-0 in the NCAA Division II Softball National Finals for the first time in program history while also advancing in the Winners Bracket with its next game set to be played on Friday afternoon at 1:30 local time (3:30 eastern) against the winner of the Augustana/UC San Diego game. Meanwhile, if West Chester falls to West Florida on Thursday afternoon, the Golden Rams will again be faced with the grim prospect of having to play back through the loser's bracket for the chance to win a National Championship. This challenging road would begin on Friday evening at 6:30 local time (8:30 eastern) opposite the loser of the Augustana/UC San Diego matchup.