PHILADELPHIA – West Chester swept a non-league Sunday doubleheader from host University of the Sciences at Father Judge High School by scores of 6-3 in the opener and 16-0 in the nightcap.
Keith Flaherty (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep) went 5-for-5 with two home runs and six RBI in game two, and right-hander
Joe Sperone (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) tossed a complete-game, seven-inning, shutout on the mound as West Chester (6-0) ran its season-opening winning streak to six straight.
Justin Horn (Willow Grove, Pa./Upper Dublin) tripled in a pair of runs, and
Mike Ferrara (Jamison, Pa./Archbishop Wood) hit his second home run of the season as the Golden Rams scored six runs on just four hits.
Gabe Rappa (Paulsboro, N.J./Neumann-Goretti [Pa.]) threw four innings for his second win of the season while
Andrew Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) threw the final three for his first save of the season.
In the opener, West Chester scored twice in the first, once in the second and three more times in the third to jump out to a 6-0 lead. USciences battled back with a pair in the third, but could only muster one more run in their final at bats in the seventh.
Ferrara's two-run shot in the first got the Golden Rams going early.
John DeMucci (Swarthmore, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) singled home
Corey Stouffer (Souderton, Pa./North Penn) in the second, and Horn's two-run triple in the third put WCU on top 5-0. Horn later stole home for the sixth run of the game.
Rappa surrendered two runs on three hits. He walked two and struck out three. Cantwell came on in the fifth and finished up. He allowed one unearned run on one hit and struck out a pair.
In the nightcap, West Chester's bats came alive. The Golden Rams plated 16 runs on 19 hits and did not commit an error. Sperone scattered four hits over seven innings.
West Chester pushed five runs across in the first and three more in the second to open things up right away. The Golden Rams scored at least one run in each inning, except the third. The first of Flaherty's two home runs was a two-run blast in the first. Ferrara also had a RBI double.
Luke Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) and Horn picked up the other RBIs.
Ferrara hit an RBI ground out in the second, and Cantwell followed with a RBI double. The Rams' third run scored on a passed ball. Flaherty's second homer of the day and third on the season was another two-run shot in the fourth.
Joe Kaleck (Southampton, Pa./Neshaminy) hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth, and Ferrara hit a two-run double that made it 13-0 after five. Flaherty scored on a passed ball in the sixth and then hit a two-run double of his own in the seventh to close out the scoring.
Sperone struck out six over seven innings and hit a batter. He did not walk anybody.
Zack Wright (Columbus, N.J./No. Burlington County Regional) went 3-for-3 with three runs scored in the second game while Horn was 3-for-4 with three runs and a RBI. Kaleck and Flaherty each scored three runs apiece as well. Ferrara finished 2-for-5 with four RBI.
West Chester travels to Cary, N.C., this weekend for the DII Baseball Challenge. They will play Franklin Pierce twice, The College of Saint Rose again and Frostburg State over the three days at the U.S. Baseball Training Complex.
