West Chester vs Bloomsburg
Series Details
Friday: 1/3:30 P.M. (Serpico Stadium-West Chester, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video
Saturday: 1/3:30 P.M. (Danny Litwhiler Field-Bloomsburg, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I Video
Series since 1996: 73-34 (4-1; W4)
WCU Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Bloomsburg Links: NEWS I ROSTER I SCHEDULE I STATS
Last Time Out
West Chester enters play following a split with Shepherd, which saw the Golden Rams drop the first two games of the series in West Virginia on Sunday afternoon by 2-1 and 8-2 finals before evening the series on Monday in West Chester with an 8-3 victory in game one and a dramatic 6-5 walk-off victory in the nightcap. Both wins required late-game comebacks as West Chester erased a 3-2 deficit in the middle innings of game one before tying the game in the seventh in game two and walking off courtesy of an eighth-inning single by Patrick Gozdan in the nightcap.
Monday was a day for the Golden Ram bullpen as relievers earned victories in both games with Ben Jones improving to 3-0 on the year after pitching 2.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts in game one before Evan Wineburg earned his first win of the year after a scoreless eighth inning in game two. Wineburg was one of seven Golden Ram pitchers used in the game two victory as he and Jesse Specter pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings to enable the late-game comeback. In game one, Jones was one of three Golden Ram pitchers to take the mound in the five-run triumph.
Flock Talk
Making his first start since a game on March 8 at Mercy, Gozdan was outstanding for West Chester on Monday afternoon, going 4-for-7 at the plate with three runs scored and an RBI in the crucial sweep of the Rams. Mark Elliott was 3-for-7 (.429) at the plate with a pair of RBI and a run scored in three games against Shepherd. Caleb Strawhecker was 3-for-8 (.375) at the plate against the Rams, scoring a pair of runs in four games and three starts.
For the year, Sean Szestowicki remains the team lead in batting average, batting .362 (46-for-127) with nine doubles, two triples, and two home runs for 28 RBI and 31 runs scored. Ben Bolhouse and Austin Stalker (who also leads the team in home runs with five) are tied for the team lead in RBI, while the Golden Rams doubles leader, Casey Vaughan (11 doubles), is first in runs scored with 38. Seven of nine members of the Golden Ram starting lineup are batting north of .300 on the year entering play on Friday, including Szestowicki (.362), Avery Spencer (.349), Vaughan (.325), Strawhecker (.315), Stalker (.313), Anthony Boccio (.311), and Bolhouse (.303).
On the mound, Specter was the most successful reliever for West Chester last week as he pitched three shutout innings in two appearances while striking out four without allowing a hit. Despite setbacks at Shepherd on Friday, Kyle Lazer and Julian Costa remain first and second on the team in most major categories at 6-2 and 7-2 on the year, with ERAs of 1.93 and 3.35 along with opponent batting averages of .234 and .219. Lazer has fanned a staff-best 52 batters in 46.2 innings of work, including two complete games, while Costa has 47 strikeouts in 45.2 innings, including his no-hitter earlier this season and a save. Nick Noga, Ryan DeHaven, and Kyle Kearns have made up the remainder of the Golden Ram rotation this year, going 4-2, 2-0, and 2-2 on the year with ERAs of 6.44, 3.49, and 5.72 in 36.1 and 28.1 innings of work, respectively. Patrick Taney and Ben Jones are two of the first options out of the bullpen for head coach Mike LaRosa’s Golden Rams, appearing in 13 and 16 games with records of 1-0 and 3-0, and one save each. Taney has a 1.80 ERA and a .114 opponents batting average in 15.0 innings of work, allowing just five hits while striking out 18; however, he has also yielded a concerning 20 walks on the year. Jones is 3 -0 with a 5.85 ERA and a .213 opponents batting average, striking out 21 in 20 innings of work over his 16 appearances.
Rank and File
West Chester slipped to 20th in Division II baseball in the American Baseball Coaches Association poll and 22nd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll released earlier this week.
Time to Go
West Chester enters the weekend at 28-9 on the year and 10-6 in league play after splitting each of its last two weekend series against Shippensburg and Shepherd. With these splits, West Chester has now split three of its four weekend series on the year, with the lone weekend sweep coming against Kutztown in late March. West Chester is a comfortable third in the PSAC East standings and is three games back of East Stroudsburg and Millersville, who are tied for first at 13-3. West Chester split with ESU earlier this season and will face Millersville next weekend as the Marauders conclude the regular season against the Golden Rams and Warriors.
Series History
West Chester holds a 73-34 lead in the series against Bloomsburg dating back to 1996 and has won four of the last five meetings after sweeping the series a year ago. This sweep in 2024 halted a concerning trend, which had seen Bloomsburg win four of five, including two of three from the Golden Rams in 2023 and 2022.
Scouting Bloomsburg
Bloomsburg enters play on Friday after dropping a home doubleheader to Kutztown by 15-5 and 5-2 finals to split the season series against the Golden Bears on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the 15-5 setback in game one halted a modest three-game winning streak, which had seen the Huskies dispatch Georgian Court (11-3) last Wednesday and Kutztown (3-0, 6-3) on Monday afternoon at Kutztown.
Corey Daniels and Greg Cristino are first and second on the team offensively, batting .346 and .336 on the year with four home runs each, which is tied for second on the team behind Brady Ebbert’s five long balls. Ebbert, who is batting .259 on the year, leads the team in runs with 29, while Cristino, who also leads the team in doubles with 10, is first on the squad in RBI with 31. Daniels is a team-best 10-for-13 on stolen base attempts as he also ranks second on the team in walks with 22, along with seven hit-by-pitches, frequently finding his way on base.
On the mound, Daniel Koppsich, Landon Lorson, Brock Hammaker, and Pete Modrovsky have made up the starting rotation for much of the season. Koppsich is 2-4 on the year with a 6.06 ERA and an opponents batting average of .274 in 32.2 innings of work, while Lorson is 0-4 with a 9.36 ERA and a .327 opponent batting average. Hammaker is 2-4 with a 5.65 ERA, which is third best on the staff, along with a .241 opponent batting average, in his 28.2 innings of work, including one complete game. For his part, Modrovsky is 1-2 on the year with a 7.40 ERA and a .286 opponents’ batting average in 20.2 innings of work, including three starts.
