PSAC Tournament Central
Tickets
QUAKERTOWN, Pa.- After an uncharacteristic one-year absence a season ago, the West Chester softball team (36-15, 24-6) is ready to return to the PSAC Tournament at Veterans Park in Quakertown, Pa. this week for the 2023 PSAC Softball Tournament. West Chester enters the Tournament as the top seed in the PSAC East after capturing a share of the PSAC East Regular Season title along with East Stroudsburg before winning a tiebreak over the Warriors to claim the top seed. West Chester's return to Veterans Park, which will be the Golden Rams first trip to Quakertown since the 2019 season (due to Tournament cancellation in 2020 and modification in 2021), will begin on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. against the winner of the California (Pa.) (26-22, 19-13)/Bloomsburg (21-31, 15-17) matchup on Wednesday morning.
Fan Information
Fans making the trip to Quakertown are advised that tickets for all Spring PSAC Championship events will be cashless and will need to be purchased online via this
link. Day passes for Wednesday and Thursday will be $15 for each day, while tickets for games on Friday and Saturday will be $10 per day. Children 12 and under are admitted free of charge, along with students from PSAC member institutions with current, valid ID. Fans are advised to review the weather forecast for the day you are interested in attending prior to purchasing tickets, as all sales are final.
Flock Talk
Looking to capture its third PSAC Tournament title and defend its 2021 crown, which the team secured on the road at Seton Hill, West Chester enters the Tournament with an overall record of (36-15) and a mark of 24-6 in league play. These 24 league victories are the most in a single season for West Chester under the tutelage of 2023 PSAC East Coach of the Year
Diane Lokey after the league expanded the conference schedule to 32 games ahead of the 2023 season.
As the Golden Rams have for many years, West Chester continues to boast one of the top offenses in the PSAC, ranking in the top five in the league in most major categories, including batting average (.315), runs (289), RBI (245), and extra-base hits, thanks in large part to a league-best 25 triples on the year. Of the Golden Rams six All-Conference honorees, five of them came on the offensive side, headlined by
Katelyn Rittenbaugh (Donaldson, Pa./Pine Grove), Hailey Melvin (Tabernacle, N.J./Seneca) and Madison Melvin (Tabernacle, N.J./Seneca) who all landed on the First Team All-PSAC East squad.
Madison Melvin leads the league in a host of categories, including batting average (.485), on-base percentage (.542), hits (83), and triples (7), while also ranking a close second in runs scored with 55 on the year. Melvin's 83 hits is tied with Emily Maseth for second most in a single season in team history while also sitting just two hits shy of tying Bri Garber's 85-hit record from the 2018 season.
The West Chester lineup has shown its depth throughout the 2023 season, with eight of nine Golden Rams entering the Tournament with over 30 hits on the year, while six of the nine Golden Rams hit at least one home run during the regular season. The top half of the lineup, which features the Melvin sisters, Rittenbaugh, and Second Team All-League honoree
Grace Aguilar (Frederica, Del./Lake Forest), has all four Golden Rams batting north of .330 on the year with slugging percentages above .430. These four players have accounted for 156 runs scored this season while also driving in 122 with 54 extra-base hits, including 30 doubles, 19 triples, and five home runs.
Despite having a relatively young pitching staff in 2023, West Chester has been among the best in the league in pitching throughout the season, ranking atop the PSAC in batting average against (.241) while ranking second in the league in ERA (2.38), while also ranking second in hits allowed, surrendering just 303 so far this season. First Team All-League pick
Danielle Ciliberto (Ambler, Pa./Wissahickon), who leads the league in a host of categories, including ERA (1.25), batting average against (.212), runs (28), and earned runs (18), has enjoyed an outstanding rookie season, pitching to a record of 13-4 with 82 strikeouts on the year, including an impressive 11-strikeout effort vs. Kutztown earlier this year. Ciliberto's 11 strikeouts vs. the Golden Bears was the most by a WCU pitcher in a single game since Amanda Houck fanned 11 against U Sciences in 2018, while also serving as the most by a WCU pitcher in a PSAC East game since Brooke Harner struck out 14 vs. Kutztown in 2015.
Ciliberto is one of a number of talented WCU pitchers to enter the circle this year as fellow freshman
Samantha Klug (East Norriton, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy) has pitched to a record of 10-3 with a 2.70 ERA and .258 batting average against this season, while
Makenzie Edwards (Atco, N.J./Hammonton) has gone 9-5 with a 2.21 ERA and a .224 batting average against. Ciliberto, Edwards, and Klug have combined for 17 complete games and eight shutouts this season, with Ciliberto leading the staff with nine complete games and seven shutouts in her rookie campaign.
Beyond this trio, which has been the starting rotation for much of the season, West Chester can and does also look to the likes of
Mary Picozzi (Collegeville, Pa./Lansdale Catholic), Antonia Browning (Newark, Del./Charter School of Wilmington), and Anna Torrens (Holmes, Pa./Ridley) to take the ball and provide excellent depth in the Golden Rams rotation. Picozzi, who notably pitched the clinching game to win WCU the PSAC Title at Seton Hill in 2021, has pitched to a record of 2-0 on the year with a 3.50 ERA over her 22 innings of work. For her part, Browning enters the Tournament with a record of 2-3 with one save and a complete-game shutout against Mansfield earlier this season. The fifth-year senior has appeared in 15 games with eight starts this year and has pitched 39.2 innings for the Golden Rams in 2023, holding opponents to a .271 batting average against, along with 19 strikeouts over that span.
Know the Foe
West Chester will have to deal with the unknown to an extent entering the PSAC Tournament as its first opponent will be determined in the first game of the Tournament at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning when fourth-seeded Cal (Pa.) takes on fifth-seeded Bloomsburg to open the 2023 Tournament.
If the first opponent proves to be Bloomsburg, West Chester will enter with quite a bit of familiarity vs. the Huskies, having swept the season series, including a pair of wins at home on April 22 in what proved to be the final home doubleheader of the year after the Shepherd doubleheader was rained out. West Chester swept the doubleheader vs Bloomsburg on April 22 in just 10 innings, capturing game one by a 10-1 final before winning the nightcap by an 8-0 final. These two victories extended the WCU winning streak to five games and also improved West Chester to 8-2 against Bloomsburg in the last 10 meetings dating back to the 2021 season. The first meeting of the 2021 season, which came in late March, was the Huskies and Golden Rams first matchup against one another since the 2017 season, which saw West Chester defeat Bloomsburg by a final of 6-0 in Quakertown to capture its first PSAC Tournament title.
Entering the Tournament, Sage Weidlich is the first of five Huskies batting north of .310 on the year, batting an impressive .364 on the season with 24 runs scored and 19 RBI, thanks in part to three home runs on the season, which is third best on the team. Alex Iseminger, who is fifth in batting average (.311), is the primary power threat for Bloomsburg, leading the team in both doubles (14) and home runs (7) entering the PSAC Tournament. Emma Little has also shown herself to be a power threat for head coach Susan Kocher's Huskies throughout the season, batting .325 with eight doubles and four home runs while tying with Iseminger for the team lead in RBI with 32.
In the circle, Callie Sowers is the primary option and workhorse for the Huskies, entering the Tournament with 182 innings pitched and a record of 14-15 on the year. The second-team All-PSAC East selection has managed the workload well this season, posting a 2.77 ERA with a .239 batting average against while also logging 23 complete games and six shutouts along with a league-best 227 strikeouts.
Should West Chester open against Cal (Pa.), West Chester enters with an 8-4 lead in the series against the Vulcans since 2010 and has not lost to its Western Division foe since the 2015 PSAC Tournament. Each of the last two meetings between the Vulcans and Golden Rams have come in Quakertown, with West Chester emerging victorious in each, winning by a 4-3 final in 2017 before taking a 10-2 victory in six innings in 2018.
Cal enters the Tournament with tremendous offensive depth as seven of the Vulcan's nine starters bat over .305 on the year, led by a .395 batting average from Kaitlyn Achtermeier, who also leads the team in extra-base hits with 21 (16 doubles, two triples, three home runs). Charity Henderson, who is third in batting average (.333), also leads the team in home runs with four as one of 10 Vulcans to leave the yard this season.
In the circle, Caleigh Rister, who was a Second Team All-PSAC West selection, leads the team in most categories, including wins (12), ERA (1.82), complete games (13), and strikeouts 95, while holding opponents to a .238 batting average against, which is second best on the staff. Alyssa Rose, who has pitched to a record of 6-6 on the year with a 2.65 ERA, has the best batting average against on the Vulcan staff, registering a mark of .206 entering the PSAC Tournament.
With a Win
With a victory, West Chester would advance directly to game 10 of the Tournament on Thursday at 10 a.m. against the Kutztown/Mercyhurst winner, played at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Should West Chester fall in its first game on Wednesday, the Golden Rams will be forced to play an elimination game on Wednesday night against the loser of the Cal/Bloomsburg game from earlier in the day on Wednesday.
