Game Notes
Live Stats
Video (No Audio)
Tournament Central
INSTITUTE, W.V.- The 2018 NCAA Division II Softball Atlantic Regional Champions West Chester University Golden Rams will look to duplicate their success in 2019 as the purple and gold will enter the Tournament as the third seed in the Atlantic Region. West Chester will open its Tournament run on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. opposite a familiar foe in PSAC West rival and six-seed Gannon with the winner of that contest advancing to square off against the Winner of the West Virginia State/Winston Salem State contest set to be played earlier in the afternoon.
Tickets for the Tournament will be $5 per day for adults, $3 per day for students and senior citizens, $2 per day for children between the ages of 3-12 while kids two and under will be admitted free of charge with a paying adult. Fans are reminded that ticket sales will be cash only.
West Chester has faced Gannon 10 times in its history and the Golden Knights have emerged victorious in six out of those 10 meetings with the most recent victory over the Golden Rams coming in Quakertown a week ago. Despite this concerning track record, West Chester has fared well against Gannon when the two teams have squared off in the NCAA Tournament as West Chester has played to a perfect 2-0 record against the Golden Knights in such meetings with those two victories coming via a Super Regional sweep of Gannon a year ago.
West Chester enters the Tournament after playing to a 2-2 record in the PSAC Tournament a week ago with a pair of convincing victories over Seton Hill and Shippensburg while falling to Kutztown and NCAA Tournament foe Gannon. West Chester opened its PSAC Tournament run on Wednesday, May 1
st with a 5-2 victory over Seton Hill behind the strength of a four-RBI performance from
Heidi McCollester (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) (including a two-run shot from  the senior catcher) to improve to 1-0 in the PSAC Tournament for the third year in a row. On Thursday afternoon, the Golden Rams likely had memories of the 2018 season as they dropped their opener to Kutztown by a final of 8-3, thus, forcing the Golden Rams to win an elimination game vs Shippensburg in game 12 of the Tournament to advance to Friday afternoon. For the second year in a row, West Chester got the victory it was looking for as the Golden Rams hung 14 runs on the Raiders in just five innings to pick up a shortened 14-6 victory and improve to 2-1 on the Tournament. West Chester faced Gannon on Friday morning and the contest was a back and forth affair throughout but a late surge by Gannon proved to be too much for the Golden Rams to handle in an 8-7 setback, which ended the purple and golds stint in Quakertown in the PSAC Semifinals.
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, West Chester has a stable of talented arms led by a pair of All-PSAC Selections including PSAC East Pitcher of the Year in
Reilly Gearhart (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township) and fellow all-league
Maegen Kavanagh (Easton, Pa./Easton). Gearhart enters the Tournament as the teams leader in almost all of the major statistical categories as she has posted a record of 16-7 with a 1.98 ERA, a WHIP of 1.23, and a batters average against of .237. Gearhart also leads the team in strikeouts as she has fanned 93 batters on the season. Meanwhile, Kavanagh has been an invaluable arm in relief as she has pitched to a record of 8-4 with a 3.07 ERA while also recording a team-high four saves while recording one victory and one save a week ago in Quakertown to lead the Golden Ram pitching staff in the PSAC Tournament. West Chester also benefits from the arms of
Jen Hanshaw (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) and
Kelly Tinsman (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) who enter the NCAA Tournament with records of 6-5 and 4-3, respectively. Hanshaw and Tinsman both add much needed depth to the Golden Ram pitching staff as they have each proven to be talented starters and relievers capable of helping the Golden Rams in a variety of situations.
From an offensive standpoint, West Chester turns to four All-PSAC Selections to lead the Golden Rams offense.
Emily Maseth (Westminster, Md./Westminster) and McCollester were the Golden Rams offense leaders in 2019 as Maseth led the purple and gold in batting average (.401), hits (71), and doubles (17). Maseth's 71 hits rank the junior fifth in team single-season history in hits surpassing Garber's 70 hit total from 2017 while her 17 doubles rank in a tie for third in team history alongside
Madison Kelly's 17 doubles in 2018 and Sam Ingersoll's 17 two-baggers in 2010. Meanwhile, McCollester provided the power in the Golden Ram lineup as she led the team in RBI (63), and home runs (10), which ranks the senior catcher eighth in program history in single season home runs. Â
Bri Garber (Willow Street, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) continues to provide strong offensive support for the Golden Rams as she enters the Tournament with a .371 batting average, 66 hits, and a team-high 51 runs scored. Earlier in 2019, Garber also became just the seventh Golden Ram in program history to join the 200-hit club as she eclipsed the 200-hit marker in West Chester's home split with Kutztown. Since joining this illustrious group, Garber has continued her impressive production as she now has 220 hits on career, which ranks third all-time just five hits shy of
Cat Hammer's second place mark of 225 career hits.
Annamarie Hartman (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) was the Golden Rams final All-PSAC East selection as she enters the NCAA Tournament boasting a batting average of .309 with 51 hits and 20 runs scored to provide vital depth in the Golden Ram lineup.
Gannon enters play after a solid PSAC Tournament showing that enabled the Golden Knights to earn a spot in the eight-team field after remaining outside the Regional Rankings prior to the beginning of the PSAC Tournament a week ago. In Quakertown, Gannon harnessed a little bit of its magic from 2018 to play to a record of 5-2 and reach the PSAC Tournament Championship game where the Golden Knights eventually fell by a final of 6-4 in the final game of the Tournament. This impressive run enables Gannon to enter the Tournament with an overall record of 30-14 after beginnings its season with a record of just 5-6.
Inside the circle, Gannon is very similar to a year ago as the Golden Knights are led by a pair of talented pitchers in Madi Beining and Kennedy DeMatteis while Kellyn Perich provides vital depth in the Gannon rotation. Beining is the Golden Knights top-arm once again in 2019 as she possesses a record of 17-6 with an ERA of just 2.30 and batting average against (BAA) of .249. Meanwhile DeMatteis holds an equally solid record of 10-6 with an ERA of 3.16 and a BAA of .257 entering the NCAA Tournament. Finally, Perich enters play with a record of 3-2 and an ERA of 5.25 entering the Tournament.
Offense continues to be the strong point for Gannon in 2019 similarly to what it was for the Golden Knights in impressive 2018 season. Gannon enters play with seven of its nine starters batting above .300 on the year led by Sarah Ingerick who enters play batting .383 on the season while also ranking second on the team in home runs with 10 long balls on the season. Kaity Stocker holds a narrow lead over Ingerick in the home run column as she has 11 home runs to her credit while also leading the team in RBI with 31 on the season while also recording a solid .325 batting average, which ranks fifth on the team as the last of five Golden Knights to bat above .325 on the season.
A win on Thursday afternoon will advance West Chester into the winner's bracket once again and place the Golden Rams just two wins away from a repeat trip to the Super Regionals. West Chester would face the winner of the West Virginia State/Winston Salem State game while a loss will force West Chester to win four times to capture the Pod once again in 2019.
Â
