WEST CHESTER, PA – A spectacular performance from the bullpen leads West Chester to shutout over visiting Chestnut Hill, 2-0, in the first round of the Bill Giles Classic on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon at Serpico Stadium.
West Chester (19-8) advances to the Bill Giles Classic championship game, which will be played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on April 18. The Golden Rams will face Jefferson University in that championship game. Chestnut Hill (11-16) dropped its first Bill Giles game in its first season as part of the Division II tournament involving Philadelphia area schools.
Left-handed freshman,
Ryan DeHaven (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge), scattered six hits over 4.2 innings of scoreless baseball. He struck out two without allowing a walk. Five relievers followed him to the hill and none of them yielded a hit while striking out six.
Dylan Howanitz (Archbald, Pa./Valley View) got West Chester out of the fifth inning by striking out Chestnut Hill's leadoff hitter, Eli Meredith, with runners on first and second. It was the only inning in which the visitors put multiple runners on base.
David Ferguson (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) struck out the side in the sixth, and
Andrew Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) issued the only walk of the game from the Golden Rams' staff, but got the other three batters in the seventh.
Joe Sperone (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) pitched a perfect eighth, and
Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview), who started the game at first base and had one of West Chester's two runs batted in on the day, got the side in the ninth to earn his fifth save of the season.
West Chester put up single tallies in the third and the fourth for what proved to be enough on a day that the pitching dominated.
Corey Stouffer (Souderton, Pa./North Penn) was hit by a pitch with one out and stole second.
Evan Profy (Croydon, Pa./Harry S. Truman) was then hit by a pitch as well, before
John DeMucci (Swarthmore, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) doubled home Stouffer staking the Golden Rams to a 1-0 lead.
Luke Cantwell (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) led off the fourth and was hit by a pitch.
J.R. Gifford (Doylestown, Pa./Archbishop Wood) followed with a double, and Costa then hit a sacrifice fly to dead center, plating Cantwell with the second and final run of the ballgame.
The shutout was West Chester's second of the season. The Golden Rams also blanked Saint Anselm on March 3 in Cary, N.C.
West Chester makes its 18th appearance in the Bill Giles Classic championship. They are the defending champions having beaten Wilmington last April, 10-8 in 12 innings. The Golden Rams have won the Bill Giles Classic 13 times in 20 years of the tournament. West Chester is 13-4 all-time in the Bill Giles Classic championship game.
The Golden Rams travel to Bloomsburg on Friday for the beginning of a three-game conference series with the Huskies at Litwhiler Field.
