WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The West Chester University softball team (29-16, 15-13) is preparing for its final weekend of the regular season searching for at least three wins in four games against Shepherd (21-18-1, 17-10-1) and Bloomsburg (28-14, 18-10) in doubleheader action on Friday and Saturday afternoon. West Chester will host Shepherd beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday before visiting Bloomsburg on Saturday for a 1 p.m. start against the Huskies.
West Chester vs Shepherd
Game Details: April 25 I 1/3:00 P.M.
Location: WCU Softball Field (West Chester, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I
Watch
Series: 25-19
WCU Links: NEWS I
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SHEP Links: NEWS I
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West Chester at Bloomsburg
Game Details: April 26 I 1/3:00 P.M.
Location: Jan M. Hutchinson Field (Bloomsburg, Pa.)
Coverage Links: Live Stats I
Video
Series: 23-21 (Since March 2005; 8-2 in last 10)
Bloomsburg Links: NEWS I
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Last Time Out
West Chester started its week with a pair of setbacks at No. 12 East Stroudsburg on Tuesday afternoon as the PSAC East-leading Warriors completed a regular-season sweep of the Golden Rams. The first game was a true pitchers' duel as
Makenzie Edwards was excellent, allowing just one run, but was out-dueled by Sarah Davenport as she allowed just one hit and struck out 15 Golden Rams on 130 pitches. In the nightcap,
Danielle Ciliberto gave West Chester an early two-run lead with a two-run home run, but a series of defensive miscues allowed the Warriors to score five runs (one earned) in the middle innings and eventually escape with a 7-2 victory over the visiting Golden Rams.
Flock Talk
Mairead Hopkins continues to lead the team in batting average at .370 with 57 hits in 154 at-bats, including a team-best 16 doubles and eight home runs, along with a team-best 36 runs and 33 RBI.
Danielle Ciliberto has the best batting average on the team at .349 with 38 hits, including five doubles and two home runs, with 19 RBI and 15 runs.
Paige Marabell is third on the team, batting .348 with a team-best 10 home runs and 42 RBI. Marabell also has 13 doubles and one triple to her name with a team-best 1.097 OPS thanks to a .674 slugging percentage.
Ciliberto has also been the top arm for the team throughout much of the season, posting a record of 15-4 with a 1.79 ERA and a .255 opponents' batting average with 89 strikeouts in 140.2 innings of work, including 10 complete games.
Makenzie Edwards is 8-8 on the year with a 2.93 ERA and a .242 opponents' batting average with 85 strikeouts in 107.2 innings of work. Ciliberto and Edwards are also tied for the team lead in saves with two each.
Alyssa Tooley has emerged as another strong arm for West Chester, going 5-2 on the year with a 3.10 ERA, a .257 opponents' batting average, and 28 strikeouts in 38.1 innings of work.
The Playoff Picture
West Chester will need at least three wins this weekend, along with likely help in order to find its way back to the PSAC Tournament in Quakertown next week as the defending Champions. Five teams are fighting for four spots this week, with Kutztown, Bloomsburg, and Shepherd all with 10 losses (18-10, 18-10, 17-10-1) while Shippensburg is the most catchable at 16-12 after splitting with WCU last weekend. Despite the split, Shippensburg holds a head-to-head tiebreak over WCU with a 3-1 series victory.
The only two teams that the Golden Rams retain the chance to beat in a tiebreak are Shepherd (1-1 vs WCU) and Bloomsburg (WCU 2-0 vs Bloomsburg). For the tie break over either of these teams to become meaningful, West Chester would likely need to go 4-0 and have both of those squads drop at least one game in their other doubleheaders vs East Stroudsburg and Millersville, respectively.
Cardiac Kids
West Chester is 15-13 in PSAC East play after opening league action on March 18 with a split at Millersville. Six of these 25 games have been decided in extra innings, with three more (the 7-6 victory over Kutztown on March 25, the 5-4 game two victory over Lock Haven last Monday, and the 3-2 comeback victory over Shippensburg last Saturday) coming via a seventh-inning walk-off.
Hailey Melvin has played the hero in two of these three seventh-inning walkoffs, hitting a double against Kutztown on March 25 and a single up the middle on Saturday against Shippensburg.
Paige Marabell was the hero against Lock Haven as she lined a single into left to lift the Golden Rams to that victory. West Chester nearly found itself in extra innings for a seventh time and second time in as many games in the nightcap with Bloomsburg in the first doubleheader with the Huskies earlier this season, but
Alyssa Tooley entered in relief and got a big strikeout to help West Chester leave the Huskies' tying run stranded on second.
Rank and File
In search of its third NCAA Tournament appearance in as many years, West Chester was ranked sixth in the second Atlantic Regional Rankings of the season released by the Division II softball committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Series History
Since 2008, West Chester holds a 25-18 lead in the series against Shepherd, despite dropping two of three to the Rams last Spring and splitting the first doubleheader this season.
Against Bloomsburg, West Chester has been 23-21 vs. the Huskies since 2005, including a dramatic sweep of Bloomsburg in West Chester earlier this season.
Scouting Shepherd
Shepherd (21-18-1, 17-10-1) heads into the weekend riding a two-game losing streak after dropping a pair of games to Kutztown on Tuesday by 2-0 and 7-2 finals. The Rams are one of the five teams, along with Bloomsburg and West Chester, jockeying for one of four spots in the PSAC Tournament. The losses at Kutztown halted a modest four-game winning streak, which had seen the Rams sweep Lock Haven and Mansfield, outscoring Lock Haven 11-8 and Mansfield 30-8.
Lauren Moore and Madelyn Chambers lead the way for Shepherd offensively, batting .438 and .373 with 60 and 47 hits, 40 and 16 RBI, and 34 and 23 runs scored. Moore leads the team in extra base hits (23- 16 doubles/seven home runs) and RBI with 40, along with her team-best 60 hits, while Chambers is the team lead in runs scored with 34, thanks in part to a team-best five triples.
In the circle, Madelayne Ruffner is 15-2 with a 1.10 ERA and a .129 opponents' batting average with 236 strikeouts in 122.1 innings of work, including 11 complete games. Sam Colaw has been a consistent second starter for Shepherd, going 4-11 with a 5.23 ERA and a .303 opponents' batting average with 48 strikeouts in 93 innings of work.
Scouting Bloomsburg
Bloomsburg (28-14, 18-10) heads into the weekend on a five-game winning streak, which the Huskies will put to the test at East Stroudsburg in a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 2 p.m. This five-game streak includes a home split against Kutztown on April 18, a sweep of Millersville last Saturday, and another sweep of Lock Haven at home on Tuesday, which saw the Huskies score 13 runs for the second time in four games in a 13-2 game two victory.
Sarah Yamrick and Mia Nemeth are first and second on the team in batting average at .412 and .397 on the year, as Nemeth leads the team in RBI with 41 thanks to 17 extra-base hits (10 doubles, three triples, four home runs). Allie Wenrich is batting .311 on the year with a team-best 11 home runs, while Bella Culp is third on the team in batting average at .386 with a team-high 38 runs while also picking up 54 hits, which is tied with Nemeth for the team lead.
Callie Sowers is 13-4 in the circle with a 2.03 ERA and a .203 opponents' batting average with 115 strikeouts in 107 innings of work, including 13 complete games. Sarah Yamrick is 11-3 on the year with a 2.31 ERA and a .240 opponents' batting average with 87 strikeouts in 94 innings, including 12 complete games of her own. Kelly Eberly is 4-7 on the year with a 2.89 ERA and a .239 opponents' batting average with 63 strikeouts in 65.1 innings of work, including five complete games. Eberly and Yamrick are also tied for the team lead in saves with two each.
Up Next
West Chester will wrap up its regular season this weekend against Shepherd on Friday and at Bloomsburg on Saturday. Results of the weekend games will determine if the Golden Rams season will continue in Quakertown next week or if the team will have to wait until May 5 to learn if their season will continue in the NCAA Tournament.
