WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The No. 19/27 West Chester University baseball team (11-2) returned home on Saturday afternoon to take on Gannon (5-8) in a doubleheader to open a four-game weekend series in West Chester against the Golden Knights. West Chester won game one by a 9-2 final and took the nightcap by a 9-5 final, outscoring its guests 18-7 over the course of the 14-inning doubleheader sweep to begin the series on Saturday. West Chester will look for its second four-game series win of the year and second in as many weekends tomorrow with the final two games of its set against Gannon.
Game One: WCU 9 Gannon 2
WP: Julian Costa (4-0)
LP: Ryan Hood (1-2)
Gannon took an early 1-0 lead in the first after a one-out triple earlier in the inning.
Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North) wasted little time erasing the deficit with a two-run shot in the home half of the first to give West Chester a 2-1 lead.
Andrew Kell (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills) doubled the lead in the fourth with a two-RBI single before
Landen Rozich (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) hit a two-run shot of his own to give West Chester a 6-1 lead heading into the fifth.
Hunter Smith (Martinsburg, Pa./Central) stretched the lead to 7-1 in the fifth with a sac fly before Gannon got a run back in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 7-2.
John Dunion (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) added an RBI of his own with a sixth-inning sac fly before Rozich scored another run via a balk to stretch the lead to 9-2.
Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview Regional) improved to 4-0 on the year, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out four.
Nick Cugino (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) worked a scoreless seventh in relief with three strikeouts to finish off the victory.
Ryan Hood suffered the loss for Gannon, allowing six runs on eight hits, while striking out three in his second loss of the season.
Stalker led West Chester the plate in game one as he was 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI, while Kell and Rozich were both 1-for-2 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBI.
Game Two: WCU 9 Gannon 5
WP: Ben Jones (2-0)
LP: Jacob Engel (2-2)
After a 1,2,3 first inning by
Luke Raho (Johnstown, Pa./Richland), Stalker gave West Chester an early 1-0 lead with a hard hit single up the middle with one out in the first inning before Smith crushed a three-run home run to left to give the Golden Rams an early 4-0 lead.
Chase Jones (Hatfield, Pa./North Penn) stretched the lead to 5-0 in the third with an RBI single. West Chester threatened to add more, but Jacob Engle tightroped out of danger with runners on second and third to keep the deficit at five.
West Chester got its first two outs of the fourth before Gannon exploded for four runs on three hits, including a double and a three-run home run to cut the West Chester lead to 5-4 heading into the home half of the fourth.
West Chester loaded the bases with one out, which allowed the Golden Rams to add a pair of runs to their lead with a throwing error by the Golden Knight first baseman before a bases-loaded walk by Kell added a third run and gave West Chester an 8-4 lead.
Raho worked the first four innings, allowing four runs on four hits and a walk, while striking out five.
Ben Jones (Coatesville, Pa./Coatesville) (2-0) entered in relief for the fifth and worked a scoreless inning with a strikeout to end the inning to place himself in line for the win.
West Chester capitalized on another Gannon defensive blunder in the home fifth when
Drew Simpson (Hockessin, Del./DMA) plated
Christian Michak (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West), who had reached on a dropped pop-up earlier in the inning.
Facing
Trey Stricker (Reading, Pa./Berks Catholic) to open the sixth, Gannon hit a solo home run to center to start the inning before Stricker worked his way out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts to keep a four-run lead intact.
Cugino returned to the mound for the seventh inning once again in game two and worked another scoreless frame to finish off the 9-5 victory.
Jacob Engel suffered the loss for Gannon in game two, allowing seven runs (five earned) on six hits and two walks, while striking out four in 3.1 innings of work. Logan Ayres finished the game on the mound for Gannon, allowing two unearned runs on one hit and four walks, while striking four in 2.2 innings.
Stalker was 2-for-3 in the game two victory with a run scored and an RBI, while Smith led the team in RBI with three after his first inning three-run home run.
Up Next
West Chester will be back in action tomorrow for another doubleheader with Gannon beginning at 1 p.m.
