LOCK HAVEN, Pa.- The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) released its baseball preseason coaches polls on Thursday afternoon, and defending Atlantic Region Champion, West Chester, was picked to finish second in the East in 2023.
West Chester, who enters the year ranked seventh in the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II Preseason Poll, received three first-place votes in the PSAC coaches poll, tying with Millersville, who was picked to finish first, and Atlantic Region runner-up East Stroudsburg, who was picked to finish third in the East. Shippensburg claimed the fourth spot in the preseason poll, while Bloomsburg was fifth, followed by Shepherd and Mansfield in sixth and seventh. Lock Haven was ranked eighth, followed by Kutztown in ninth, to round out the Eastern Division.
Out West, fellow NCAA Tournament participant Seton Hill was picked to win the West with four first-place votes, followed by Mercyhurst in second, Gannon in third with three first-place votes, and Slippery Rock in fourth with the remaining vote. IUP was fifth in the West, followed by California (Pa.), Pitt-Johnstown, and Clarion to round out the Western Division poll.
West Chester finished last spring with a record of 36-15 overall, and a mark of 17-7 in PSAC East play made an impressive NCAA Tournament run a year ago, eventually winding up as one of the final four teams still playing in Cary, North Carolina before falling to eventual National Champion North Greenville.
West Chester returns 20 players from last year's squad, including two-weekend starters in
Joe Sperone (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) and Gabe Rappa (Paulsboro, N.J./Neumann-Goretti). Sperone and Rappa both provided some big moments for West Chester a year ago, finishing with records of 8-2 and 6-3, respectively.
For Rappa, his best outing of the year came in PSAC East play at East Stroudsburg in the first game of the weekend series vs the Warriors, tossing a nine-inning masterpiece, which saw him scatter just five hits and one run while striking out seven. Rappa flirted with a complete-game shutout for most of the afternoon, surrendering just two hits and no runs through eight innings of work before the Warriors got three hits and scratched across a run in the bottom of the ninth in a 7-1 win for the Golden Rams. Sperone also turned in an impressive complete-game effort in PSAC East action for West Chester a year ago, shutting down Millersville in game two of a doubleheader at Cooper Park, scattering just four hits, including two in the ninth and one run, which also came in the ninth while striking out eight to lead West Chester to an impressive 10-1 win over the Marauders.
Outfielder
, Luke Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown), was an All-Atlantic Region selection by the NCBWA a year ago as well as an All-PSAC pick. He highlights the returning group, along with fellow outfielder
Joe Kaleck (Southampton, Pa/Neshaminy) and catcher
J.R. Gifford (Doylestown, Pa./Archbishop Wood). Cantwell is the top returning bat from the 2022 team, ending the year with a .305 batting average and a team-best 12 home runs while also ending the year with 14 multiple-RBI games and 15 multi-hit games for the Golden Rams.
West Chester was the highest-ranked team of four PSAC teams to appear in the NCBWA Preseason Top-25 poll released earlier this week, as Millersville was ranked 19
th, followed by ESU in a tie for 23
rd while Seton Hill received votes.
West Chester opens the 2023 season on February 18
th vs Clarion in Dinwiddie, Virginia, before opening PSAC East play on Friday, March 10
th at Shippensburg beginning at 2 p.m.
