POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
FINAL OUT
WEST CHESTER, PA – West Chester University swept Game 2 and Game 3 of the Atlantic Super Regional at Serpico Stadium Sunday to punch its ticket to the 2022 NCAA Division II Baseball National Championships in Cary, N.C.
West Chester (34-13) makes its fifth trip to the national championships in the last 17 years with a 5-3 victory in the opener and an 8-6 triumph in the third and deciding game of the best-of-3 super regional over visiting East Stroudsburg (41-20).
It marked the second straight weekend that the Golden Rams faced elimination needing to win two consecutive contests to keep its season alive. In the Atlantic Regional one week ago at Serpico, West Chester defeated Seton Hill twice on the final day to advance to the Super Regional this weekend. The Golden Rams turned the trick again on Sunday against an ESU squad that had not been swept in a doubleheader all year.
"The mental fortitude of this club is incredible," West Chester head coach
Mike LaRosa said afterwards. "It's the second weekend in a row that we had to win two games in one day, and they understood how to break the game down into sections and take it inning-by-inning."
Senior left-hander
Braeden Fausnaught (Danville, Pa./Danville) went the distance on the mound in the first game of the day picking up the win to improve to 9-2 overall. He threw 128 pitches, allowing three runs on six hits. He walked four and struck out seven. Junior OF
Luke Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) hit two home runs – his 11th and 12th of the season – and finished 3-for-3 at the plate with three RBI and three runs scored.
Keith Flaherty (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Joseph's Prep), hitting right behind him in the order, was also 3-for-3 on the day.
"West Chester has a couple of glue-guys in their order with Cantwell and Flaherty, and we allowed them to get comfortable," ESU head coach John Kochmansky said. "We couldn't get them out."
Flaherty was 1-for-3 with a pair of RBI in the nightcap while
Mike Ferrara (Jamison, Pa./Archbishop Wood) went 1-for-2 with a two-run blast to dead center in the bottom of the first to get the Golden Rams going offensively.
The Warriors eventually battled back to take the lead with three in the second, one in the third and two more in the fourth, opening up a 6-2 advantage. WCU responded with three in the fourth and two more in the sixth to eventually take a 7-6 lead it would not relinquish. That's when things were turned over to right-hander
Joe Sperone (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara), who threw the final 4.2 innings to improve to 8-2 on the year.
"I told Ferrara to get me a lead and this game is over," Sperone revealed later.
The Golden Rams did that in the seventh and added another insurance tally in the eighth. Sperone scattered just two hits without allowing a run. He struck out five and did not walk anybody.
West Chester heads to Cary, N.C., where the Golden Rams will take on North Greenville on Sunday, June 5 at 6 p.m. at the U.S. Baseball National Training Center.
