WEST CHESTER, Pa. - West Chester University baseball welcomed Saint Thomas Aquinas College on Sunday afternoon for the first action at Serpico Stadium this season. The Spartans won Game 1, 6-3, and were ahead in the eighth inning of Game 2 that ultimately ended, 3-1, on a walk-off home run by graduate right fielder
Drew Jarmuz (Kennett Square, Pa. / Unionville).
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HOW IT HAPPENED | GAME ONE | WEST CHESTER 3, SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS 6
- A fly ball that got lost in the sun and two walks loaded the bases for STAC in the top of the second, and shortstop Jonnathan Cepeda cleared the bases with a grand slam to give his team a 4-0 lead that it never gave up.
- Down 5-0, West Chester scored its first run on a groundout by JR Gifford (Doylestown, Pa. / Archbishop Wood) that scored senior outfielder Brian Verratti (Philadelphia, Pa. / Neumann-Goretti), who had just tripled.
- The Golden Rams made things interesting by scoring the game's final two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a Jarmuz single and a sacrifice fly by senior left fielder Ryan Calhoun (North Wales, Pa. / Germantown Academy).
HOW IT HAPPENED | GAME TWO | WEST CHESTER 3, SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS 1
- The pitching from WCU junior Zach Rice (Honey Brook, Pa. / Twin Valley) and two Spartans that threw three innings apiece was lights out in this one as neither team scored in the first five innings.
- STAC struck first in the top of the sixth when Rice induced a 5-4-3 double play with the bases loaded that saw one run score.
- The Spartans, on their third pitcher, finally allowed a run in the bottom of the eighth when Verrati found an open spot in right field for a single to tie the game.
- West Chester junior shortstop Justin Horn (Willow Grove, Pa. / Upper Dublin) walked to leadoff the bottom of the ninth. Up next was Jarmuz, and the righty drove the second pitch of his at bat over the center field fence to win the game.
INSIDE THE STATS | GAME ONE:
- Veratti went 2-for-3 with West Chester's only extra-base hit in the loss. He's batting .294 with a .938 OPS through six games.
- Outside of the grand slam, senior starting pitcher David Mervis (Gaithersberg, Md. / Gonzaga) allowed just one earned run. He had eight strikeouts over five innings in his first loss of the season.
INSIDE THE STATS | GAME TWO:
- Rice pitched a nine-inning complete game and allowed just two hits with five strikeouts and no earned runs to pick up his first win of the season.
- Horn went 2-for-4 with a walk while Jarmuz went 1-for-3 with two walks.Â
The Golden Rams, now 4-2 on the season, head to Cary, N.C., Winter Haven, Fla., Auburndale, Fla., and Sanford, Fla., for their next seven games from March 6-13.
