NEWARK, Del.- The second-seeded West Chester University baseball team (35-17) fell to third-seed East Stroudsburg (37-14) by a 6-1 final on Saturday night in game of three of the NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament. Tonight's setback brings the Golden Rams 2025 season to its conclusion and sends East Stroudsburg through to the Pod Final against Fairmont State on Sunday afternoon.
"Yeah its definitely still pretty raw, pretty tough right now," said head coach
Mike LaRosa following the loss. "Down the stretch of this season we didn't play great baseball. I felt like the combination of our bats not going the way they had been put some pressure on the pitching and that created some more pressure on our pitching. I felt like at times we were kind of hanging on every pitch, which is a tough spot to be in. Early in the season we were playing really free and easy and we tightened up a little bit down the stretch, which ultimately is on me. Full credit to ESU though, I thought they played a great game tonight and pitched really well all night long. They did a solid job of keeping everything down and on the corners and were tough to hit throughout the night, while getting some big hits of their own when they needed them."
East Stroudsburg got the first hit of the day with one out in the third inning when Connor Reilly improved to 6-for-6 on the regional with a hard hit single back up the middle. Reilly swiped second during Francisco Taveras's at bat and moved to third on a deep fly out to left center from Taveras, which allowed him to score on a slow roller down the third base line off the bat of Dennis Pierce to give the Warriors an early 1-0 lead.
Avery Spencer (Pottsgrove, Pa./Pottsgrove) gave West Chester its first base runner of the game with a hit-by-pitch to open the third before moving to second on a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt from
Patrick Gozdan (Warminster, Pa./Archbishop Wood). Spencer tried to find his way to third but was caught stealing on a perfect throw by Reilly for a big second out of the inning. Ethan Woods escaped the inning with a strikeout looking of
Mark Elliott (Somers Point, N.J./Mainland Regional) as the Golden Rams remained in search of their first hit heading into the fourth inning.
Chaise Albus opened the fourth with a double to right center and found his way to third with a ground out to second. Lazer got a big second out on a sinking liner to first before escaping the inning on a swinging strikeout of Walker Zampella to keep the deficit right where it was at 1-0 heading into the home half of the fourth.
Jake Welsch (Glenmoore, Pa./Downingtown West) opened the fourth with a double down the left field line before
Sean Szestowicki (Mount Royal, N.J./Kingsway) reached on a throwing error.
Anthony Boccio (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) did his job perfectly with a well-placed sac bunt to the left side of the infield, which moved runners to second and third with one out and closed the book on Ethan Woods as Johansel Brito entered in hopes of escaping the jam.
Brito issued a walk to the first batter he faced, loading the bases for
Casey Vaughan (Springfield, Pa./Springfield). Vaughan tied the game with a sac fly to center, which scored Welsch and tied the game at 1-1.
Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) put a charge into one and sent it all the way to the right-field fence but Dennis Pierce was able to run it down to keep the score tied at 1-1.
Woods finished with a final line of one unearned run on one hit while striking out one. Brito worked out of the inning before Cole Dymek pitched a scoreless, fifth, working around the leadoff hit to keep the game scoreless.
Stalker led off the inning with a single through the right side and found his way to third with two outs but this was as close as he could come to scoring the go-ahead run as Cole Dymek (5-0) worked out of the inning to keep the score tied at 1-1.
East Stroudsburg got its first two runners of the inning on and used these early runners to take a 3-1 lead over the Golden Rams after an RBI single by Walker Zampella and a sac fly to left from Joel Bonner.
In the seventh, Taveras led off the seventh with a double before scoring on a double by Shanley Wall to extend the lead to 4-1. Lazer got a big second out via a strikeout of Chaise Albus before
Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview) entered in relief to try and get the final out of the inning. Costa started his outing off with a bouncing single through the left side of the infield, which allowed ESU to extend its lead to 5-1 before escaping the inning on a strikeout to keep the deficit at four.
Kyle Lazer (8-3) was in command early and finished his outing in the sixth inning, allowing five runs on nine hits while walking one and striking out four in 6.2 innings of work.
"You always have to feel good going into a game with Lazer on the mound knowing that he will put you in a position to win and he did that again tonight. I thought he pitched well throughout the night but it's tough when you aren't scoring a lot of runs because it makes the pitcher grip the ball a little tighter and press a little, which I think is what we started to see late," said LaRosa.
Ryan Cavanaugh entered in relief of Cole Dymek to open the seventh after Dymek struck out one over two scoreless innings.
Cavanaugh worked a scoreless seventh and followed it up with a scoreless eighth, including his third strikeout of the game to keep the 5-1 lead intact heading into the ninth.
Dennis Pierce stretched the lead to 6-1 to open the ninth with one swing as he drove the first pitch he saw over the center field fence. Shanley Wall followed this up with a walk and Chaise Albus gave the Warriors runners on the corners with a single through the right side of the infield, which slipped just under the glove of a sliding Szestowicki. Costa worked out of the inning without any further damage to give the Golden Rams one final chance offensively.
Costa finished his final outing of the 2025 season with five strikeouts in 2.1 innings of work, allowing just one run on four hits and a walk.
Caden Parker entered for the home half of the ninth for East Stroudsburg and closed out the game for the Warriors lifting the third-seed to a 6-1 win over the Golden Rams.
Tonight's setback concludes the Golden Rams season at 35-17 on the year in their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in as many seasons.
"I really feel for our senior class," said LaRosa. "The coaches and our younger guys get to come back and try to make another run at this thing next year but unfortunately those guys don't. After going two and out last year I know they really wanted to come back and rewrite the story so not getting it done hurts a little bit extra. This senior class had unbelievable people across the board. It was a high character group with great work ethic and great leadership. This class was a really special group that you hate to see leave and you know they are gonna be very successful in whatever they do in life after baseball. It's hard to lose a group like that but I think they did a good job passing all that down to the underclassmen so their legacy will certainly stick around."
The Warriors will advance to face Fairmont State in a rematch from the opening game of the Tournament on Sunday at a time and location that will be officially announced on Sunday morning. ESU will need only one win over Fairmont State to punch its ticket to and host the Super Regionals at Creekview Park next weekend after Seton Hill swept a must-win doubleheader from top-seed Millersville earlier today at Cooper Park.
