WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The No. 7/10 West Chester University baseball team (14-3) earned its first weekend sweep of the season as the Golden Rams took game three from Queens by a 6-1 final to start the day on Saturday before a furious seventh-inning comeback in the nightcap stunned the visiting Knights and allowed West Chester to earn a 4-3 walk-off victory.
Game One: WCU 6 Queens 1
WP: Kyle Lazer (4-0)
LP: Severino Napolitano (1-1)
West Chester got an early lead in the first inning when
Avery Spencer (Pottsgrove, Pa./Pottsgrove) drove home an early run on a fielder's choice to give the hosts the early 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless second inning, West Chester scored four in the third, including a bases-loaded triple by
Ben Bolhouse (Chadds Ford, Pa./Kennett), which plated three before he scored on an RBI single by Spencer.
Queens got a run back in the fifth inning with a sac fly, after loading the bases to start the inning before
Kyle Lazer (Havertown, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) escaped the inning on a line drive double play to keep the four-run lead intact.
This ended Lazer's day as he improved to 4-0 on the year with a final line of one run on three hits and four walks, while striking out four in five innings of work.
West Chester tacked on another in the sixth when
Mark Elliott (Somers Point, N.J./Mainland Regional) grounded out to short, which scored
Casey Vaughan (Springfield, Pa./Springfield), who had doubled to left to open the inning.
David Ferguson (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) worked a scoreless 1.1 in relief, allowing just two hits, while walking one and striking out another.
Gannon Kadlecik (McKees Rocks, Pa./Montour) entered with one out in the seventh and got the final two outs via strikeouts to end the game.
Severino Napolitano (1-1) got the start and suffered the loss, allowing six runs on nine hits and three walks in his five-plus innings of work. Peter Nenadich III entered in relief and worked out of the sixth inning, including one strikeout in the setback.
Szestowicki was 3-for-3 at the plate with a run scored, while
Anthony Boccio (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) worked two walks and scored a pair of runs. Bolhouse led the team in RBI with his bases-clearing triple in the third inning for his lone hit of the afternoon.
Game Two WCU 4 Queens 3
WP: Ben Jones (1-0)
LP: Nick Kozerski (0-1)
Kyle Kearns (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) got the start and settled for a no-decision on Saturday afternoon as he allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and one walk, while striking out six in 4.1 innings of work. His counterpart, Mike Vilardi, also had to settle for a tough-luck no-decision after pitching brilliantly for six innings and carrying a two-hit shutout into the seventh.
In the seventh, Vilardi got his first out on a three-pitch strikeout before walks of Bolhouse and
Austin Stalker (Wyncombe, Pa./Council Rock North) and a Spencer single on a 2-1 offering loaded the bases and led to Nick Kozerski (0-1) entering in relief.
Kozerski walked Vaughan to break the shutout and allowed a second run to cross when a 2-2 pitch ran inside and clipped
Darius Troche (Shillington, Pa./Governor Mifflin) to make the score 3-2.
Looking for his second save of the season, Kozerski induced what appeared to be a game-ending 4-6-3 double play ball, but the throw onto first tipped off the first baseman's glove and down the first base line toward the plate. Perhaps stunned that what they thought what was the third out of a game-four victory was now laying in foul territory near the Golden Ram dugout, Queens was slow to get to the ball defensively, which allowed Vaughan, who was on first when the play began to scamper home behind
Andrew Dankanich (Philadelphia, Pa./Neumann-Goretti) and score the game-winning run.
Vilardi was excellent in the setback for Queens, allowing just four hits and three runs on two walks while striking out three after allowing just two hits through his first 6.1 innings of work. Vilardi, who played center for much of the weekend for Queens, needed only 65 pitches to get through his 24 batters.
Patrick Taney (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) entered in relief of Kearns and got the second out of the fifth, but not before yielding a hit, a walk, and a wild pitch.
Ben Jones (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) (1-0) earned his first in of the season in relief, escaping the fifth on a fly ball to center, before pitching two more scoreless innings, allowing two hits, while striking out a pair on just 30 pitches.
After two scoreless innings to open the game, Queens scratched across a pair of runs in the third inning courtesy of RBI singles through the Golden Ram infield before another single and eventual throwing error in the fourth, extended the lead to 3-0.
It appeared as if this would be how the score would remain until the Golden Rams mounted their furious seventh-inning comeback to complete the weekend sweep.
Up Next
West Chester will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon against Molloy, beginning at 3 p.m., before opening league play on Friday afternoon vs East Stroudsburg, who just played 21 innings, one of the longest Division II baseball games on record vs Southern New Hampshire on Friday night, in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
