West Chester vs Kutztown
Series Details: March 28 & 29 I 1/3:30 P.M.
Location: 3/28 Serpico Stadium (West Chester, Pa.) 3/29 North Campus Baseball Field (Kutztown, Pa.)
Coverage Links: WCU Links Live Stats I Video Kutztown Links Live Stats I Video
WCU Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Kutztown Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Last Time Out
West Chester was back in action on Tuesday afternoon against Jefferson in a Bill Giles Classic First Round game against the Rams on South Campus. West Chester scored three runs in the first thanks in part to an Anthony Boccio (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) triple and a Ben Bolhouse (Chadds Ford, Pa./Kennett) double before Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) tacked on another run with an RBI single in the fourth. West Chester used five pitchers in the win on Tuesday as Danny Carr (Paoli, Pa./Great Valley) got the start and his first victory, while Kyle Kearns (West Chester, Pa./Rustin), Evan Wineburg (Norristown, Pa./Archbishop Carroll), Jesse Specter (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown), and David Ferguson (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) all pitched in relief. Wineburg, Specter, and Ferguson all pitched two scoreless innings, striking out four, two, and five, respectively, as Ferguson earned his first save of the year.
Flock Talk
Bolhouse and Sean Szestowicki (Mount Royal, N.J./Kingsway) are first and second on the team in batting average, batting .375 (24-for-64) and .350 (28-for-80), respectively. With six extra-base hits, Bolhouse leads the team in RBI with 24, while Casey Vaughan (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) leads in runs scored with 25. Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North) leads the team in home runs with three, while driving in 17 runs.
On the mound, Kyle Lazer (Havertown, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) and Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview) remain tied for first on the team in wins at 5-0 and 5-1 on the year with ERAs of 0.93 and 3.21, along with opponent batting averages of .214 and .200. They are also tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 31 strikeouts each. Ryan DeHaven (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) earned his spot as a weekend starter for the Golden Rams and heads into the weekend at 2-0 with a 2.49 ERA and an opponent batting average of .244 in 21.2 innings of work, including 10 excellent innings last week. Nick Noga (Avondale, PA/Avon Grove) remains in the weekend rotation for West Chester, with a 1-2 record on the year and 20 strikeouts in 20.2 innings of work. Notably, he earned Pitcher of the Week honors with an excellent complete-game shutout against Queens (NY) earlier this year. Patrick Taney (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) remains one of the first options out of the bullpen for LaRosa and the Golden Rams, appearing in seven games with a 1-0 record, a 0.93 ERA, and an opponent batting average of just .143. Taney has yielded 13 walks in 9.2 innings of work but has also struck out 11 to limit the damage those walks have been able to cause.
Home Cooking
West Chester is a perfect 9-0 at home this season, including three wins earlier this week against East Stroudsburg on Sunday and Jefferson on Tuesday. West Chester is outscoring teams 62-18 through nine home games and 178-85 on the year.
Off to the Bank
With its win over Jefferson on Tuesday, West Chester will have the opportunity to win the Bill Giles Classic Championship game for the third consecutive year when the team faces Wilmington in that matchup on April 8 at 1 p.m.
Pitching Plaudits
West Chester has won PSAC East Pitcher of the Week honors each of the last four weeks, with Ryan DeHaven (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) becoming the latest Golden Ram hurler to earn the award after two outstanding outings last week. Julian Costa was the first weekly award winner of the year after his no-hitter in Cary, North Carolina, which earned him National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) National Pitcher of the Week honors, followed by Kyle Lazer, and Nick Noga.
Rank and File
West Chester slipped to 14th in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and 19th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) polls this week after splitting its opening series of PSAC East play with East Stroudsburg last week. The Golden Rams dropped the first two games of the set at ESU last Saturday before bouncing back with a Sunday sweep of ESU in West Chester.
Traffic Advisory
Please be aware that College Boulevard will have limited access from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 29, due to the 34th running of the Kutztown Optimist Club Fools' Run. Main Street and Kutztown Road should be used to access campus during this time. The road races support scholarships for area high school students to attend KU.
Series History
A small snapshot of the overall series history between West Chester and Kutztown shows the Golden Bears holding a narrow 65-64 lead over West Chester in games dating back to 1996. West Chester won the series over Kutztown last year, taking three of four games from the Golden Bears, a feat the team also accomplished in 2021 and 2023. The Golden Rams' last sweep of Kutztown was in 2022 when the team won all three games, with the last four-game sweep being in April 2017.
Scouting Kutztown
Kutztown enters the weekend coming off a split with Mansfield, which saw the Golden Bears split the first day of the series in Kutztown, dropping the opener 10-9 before winning game two 8-7. Saturday told a similar tale as Kutztown earned an 11-10 victory in game one at Mansfield before dropping the series finale by a 17-6 final.
Bo Barthol is first on the team in batting average, batting a stellar .436 (34-for-78) on the year with 13 extra-base hits, including 11 doubles, while also scoring a team-high 25 runs. Jared Ferguson leads the team in RBI with 20, batting 361 (22-for-61) with nine extra-base hits, including two home runs.
On the mound, Abel Saft (0-3; 18.21 ERA, .437 BAA), Paul Morestski (1-2; 7.40 ERA, .353 BAA), Cody Baberio (2-1; 7.81 ERA, .291 BAA), and Kannon Zdimal (1-3; 5.04 ERA; .275 BAA) have made up the Golden Bears weekend rotation for much of the 2025 season to this point. Evan Krippel (1-2; 5.40 ERA, .265 BAA) and Tyler Cleveland (0-1; 12.64 era, .368 BAA) have also made spot starts for Kutztown, earning two starts in six appearances each.
