WEST CHESTER, Pa.- The No. 11/12 West Chester University baseball team (39-10) is preparing to return to action at home this weekend for the opening weekend of the NCAA Division II Baseball Atlantic Regional Tournament. West Chester earned the top seed in the Atlantic Region after an outstanding regular season and a run to the PSAC Championship game at Slippery Rock last weekend. The Golden Rams will begin their NCAA Tournament journey on Thursday afternoon at Serpico Stadium, for the fourth time in the last five seasons, against the loser of the East Stroudsburg/Bloomsburg game, which begins at 11 a.m. on Thursday. The first pitch for West Chester is currently scheduled for 2 p.m., but is subject to change based on the length of the first game of the afternoon.
Fan Information
A Tournament Central page is available
here. Tickets will be sold on-site only, and all sales will be
cashless; however, all major credit cards, as well as Google and Apple Pay, will be accepted. Prices are set at $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors, plus applicable fees. No comp tickets will be available.
The Slate
West Chester will sit and watch the first game of the Regional to learn if the Golden Rams will face East Stroudsburg (36-14) or Bloomsburg (27-19) in the nightcap on Thursday in West Chester on the first day of the Regional Tournament. West Chester earned hosting rights for the fourth time in the last five seasons. East Stroudsburg and Bloomsburg will get the Tournament underway on Thursday at 11 a.m., with the loser of that game facing West Chester in an elimination game on Thursday afternoon. If West Chester is victorious in this Thursday afternoon elimination game, a game the Golden Rams have not won since 2022, West Chester will begin a best-of-three series with the winner of that ESU/Bloomsburg game on Friday at 12 p.m. There is potential for two games to be played on Saturday, as the first game of the day will begin at 11 a.m. With a win by whichever team started the three-game set on Friday, that game would conclude the regional. If things are even at 1-1 after Saturday morning's game, a final elimination game would be played on Saturday afternoon, with the winner of that game advancing to Super Regionals next weekend.
Flock Talk
After going 2-1 at Slippery Rock last week, including a 13-5 victory over Shepherd in the PSAC Quarterfinals and a 6-2 win over Indiana (Pa.) in the PSAC Semifinals before a 2-1 loss to Millersville in the Championship game, West Chester enters the NCAA Tournament at 39-10 on the year, just one win shy of its 40
th win of the season. Under head coach
Mike LaRosa, who recently picked up his 400
th victory as a Collegiate Head Coach and his 200
th at the helm of the Golden Rams, West Chester also eclipsed the 40-win plateau in 2024 when the team went 43-9 and won the PSAC Tournament title, while also earning NCAA Regional Tournament hosting rights.
Hunter Smith (Martinsburg, Pa./Central) remains first on the team in batting average at .368 with 53 hits, including 16 doubles, six home runs, and three triples, while also scoring 33 runs and driving in 49 more. Smith has the best OPS on the team at 1.118 and is followed by
Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) and
Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North), batting .347 and .346, respectively. Strawhecker has 52 hits with 22 extra-base hits, including 12 doubles, eight home runs, and two triples, while scoring a team-best 55 runs and driving in 35, while Stalker has 12 doubles, 10 home runs, and four triples, and has driven in a team-best 51, while also scoring 47 runs and is the third and final Golden Ram with an OPS north of 1.000.
Carter Rust (Liberty Township, Ohio/Lakota West) is batting .336 on the year with 47 runs scored, followed by
Drew Simpson (Hockessin, Del./DMA), who is batting .333 with 44 runs and 37 RBI, including six home runs.
Patrick Gozdan (Warminster, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and
Christian Michak (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) are the final two Golden Rams batting north of .300 at .320 and .305. Gozdan has driven in 35 and scored 36 runs, including his grand slam against East Stroudsburg on March 29, which was the difference in a 6-2 victory, while Michak has scored 41 runs and driven in 26, while also going a team-best 26-for-29 on stolen base attempts.
Landen Rozich (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) has been heating up as the spring has gone on and is now batting .253 on the year with four home runs, including a grand slam of his own against Millersville before going 4-for-10 (.400) at the PSAC Tournament, including a 2-for-4 afternoon with a double, a run, and an RBI in the win over Shepherd on Thursday.
Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview) became the Golden Rams first 10-game winner since Joe Gunkel in 2012 on Thursday with a five-inning win over Shepherd to help West Chester advance in the PSAC Tournament. Costa is 10-2 on the year with a 2.66 ERA and a .246 batting average against with 67 strikeouts in 71 innings of work, including four complete games and three shutouts, along with his no-hitter earlier this spring.
Kyle Lazer (Havertown, Pa./Msgr. Bonner & Prendie) also picked up his sixth win of the year last weekend at Slippery Rock with six strong innings against Indiana (Pa.), including six strikeouts, which dropped his ERA to 3.35 and his batting average against to .263 with 50 strikeouts in 53.2 innings of work, including two complete games and a shutout.
Luke Raho (Johnstown, Pa./Richland) was sharp out of the bullpen for West Chester last weekend, picking up a nine-out save with five strikeouts against IUP in the semifinals before delivering a strong 1.1 innings, allowing just one run on two hits against Millersville in the Championship game on Saturday.
Kyle Rogers (Clifton, N.J./Clifton) has been between a bullpen and starting role for much of the season and pitched tremendously in relief on Saturday against Millersville, delivering 4.1 shutdown innings, allowing just two hits, while striking out four to silence the Marauder offense and keep West Chester within striking distance throughout the afternoon. With this effort, Rogers is 4-2 on the year with a 4.06 ERA and a .260 batting average against with 39 strikeouts in 44.1 innings of work over the course of 17 appearances and four starts.
Out of the bullpen, Simpson made his third scoreless and hitless appearance of the spring in Saturday's Championship game, striking out three in 1.2 innings of work as he enters the NCAA Tournament with 10 strikeouts and just one walk allowed in 4.2 scoreless innings of work. Rozich, the other half of the Golden Rams two-way infield duo, is 3-1 with a 1.93 ERA and a .214 batting average with 28 strikeouts in 18.2 innings over the course of 11 appearances and also has three saves on the year.
Nick Cugino (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) was not used last weekend at Slippery Rock but has made the most appearances of any member of the Golden Ram bullpen heading into the NCAA Tournament. Cugino has been called upon 19 times this season and is 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA and a .255 batting average against with nine strikeouts against just 12 hits and a walk in 12.1 innings of work.
Atop the Mountain
Costa became the Division II Baseball active career wins leader with his PSAC Quarterfinal victory over Shepherd on Thursday at Slippery Rock, as he picked up the 32
nd victory of his career. Already the WCU career wins and strikeouts record holder, Costa is also the Division II active career leader in complete-game shutouts and is tied for second in complete games with 12, while also ranking third among active DII pitchers in strikeouts with 279. Earlier this spring, Costa became one of two PSAC pitchers in league history to win over 30 games and strikeout more than 275 batters, joining Brent Francisco (2020-24) of East Stroudsburg, who finished his career as a Warrior with 30 wins and 326 career strikeouts.
NCAA Tournament History
The 2012 and 2017 Division II Baseball National Champion Golden Rams return to the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons and the 21
st time in program history. West Chester shows a record of 49-40 (.551) in NCAA Tournament games after dropping a pair of games to Fairmont State and East Stroudsburg last May. West Chester, which last won the Atlantic Regional Championship in 2022, is still seeking its first Tournament victory since 2023 after going 0-2 in the Tournament in both 2024 and 2025.
Familiar Foes
Five of the six teams competing for the Atlantic Regional crown hail from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, with four of those five teams, including all three in West Chester this weekend, beginning with the PSAC East teams. Millersville, the two-seed and host of the other pod, is the lone PSAC East team in its half of the bracket, joined by PSAC West Regular Season Champion Seton Hill and Mountain East Tournament Champion Charleston.
The Other Side
The winner of the Tournament in West Chester this weekend will advance to face the winner of the other Regional Pod, which features PSAC Tournament Champion Millersville (36-16), along with PSAC West Regular Season Champion Seton Hill (41-9) and Mountain East Tournament Champion Charleston (W.V.) (25-29). This Regional pod will be played at Millersville as the Marauders earned the second seed in the Tournament after going 4-0 at the PSAC Tournament in Slippery Rock last weekend.
Rank and File
West Chester rose to 12
th in the latest American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) poll released this week as the highest Atlantic Region team in the rankings, one spot ahead of Seton Hill, which is 13
th and is the lone other Atlantic Region team in the top-30.
Series History
West Chester was 7-1 against East Stroudsburg and Bloomsburg during the regular season, winning three of four from East Stroudsburg, including a 2-0 win at Creekview Park along with a pair of 6-2 and 8-7 wins in West Chester to finish March before outscoring Bloomsburg 38-14 in a four-game sweep of Bloomsburg on April 23 and 24 in the second to last conference weekend series of the year.
West Chester is 94-59 against East Stroudsburg after winning three of four from the Warriors earlier this season to avenge a 6-1 loss in the NCAA Tournament last May, which concluded the Golden Rams 2025 season. With its sweep of Bloomsburg, West Chester holds an 80-35 lead over Bloomsburg dating back to 1996 and has won seven of eight in the last two seasons.
In NCAA Tournament play, West Chester is 2-2 against East Stroudsburg, including a Super Regional matchup victory, which saw West Chester sweep a doubleheader to advance to Cary, North Carolina, in 2022, along with the 6-1 loss to the Warriors at Bob Hannah Stadium in Newark, Delaware, last May. West Chester has never faced Bloomsburg in an NCAA Tournament game.
Scouting East Stroudsburg
East Stroudsburg, who won the Regional last Spring, enters 2026 looking to become the first repeat Atlantic Regional Champion since Mercyhurst in 2018 and 2019. The Warriors fell to Millersville by a 32 final in the PSAC Semifinals in perhaps the most heartbreaking fashion imaginable, misplaying a routine fly ball to right before surrendering a no-doubter off the bat of Jimmy Kirk to fall by a 3-2 final and drop to 36-14 on the season.
West Chester took three of four from East Stroudsburg in the season series with the Warriors, including both games in West Chester, but East Stroudsburg took three of four from Bloomsburg, dropping only the third game of the series by a 12-3 final at Creekview Park.
Offensively, Troy Davis and Cole Serfass are first and second in batting average, batting .380 and .365 with 40 and 31 runs scored and 29 and 41 RBI, respectively. Walker Zampella, who is batting .348, which is fourth best on the team and just a point behind Parker Frey (.349), is tied for the home run lead with four and has scored a team-best 41 runs this spring. Zander Condeelis is the final Warrior batting north of .300 entering play on Thursday, entering the Tournament batting .304 on the season.
Ryan Dewees has been the Warriors' ace throughout the season, entering play on Thursday at 7-2 with a 2.70 ERA and a .247 batting average against with 82 strikeouts in 66.2 innings of work. Ethan Woods and Evan Hughes are 5-3 and 7-2 with ERAs of 3.51 and 3.68, along with batting averages of .282 and .230, respectively. Cole Dymek leads the staff in saves with five in 14 appearances, while also picking up a win as he is 1-0 with a 1.33 ERA and a .221 batting average against with 28 strikeouts in 27 innings of work.
Scouting Bloomsburg
Making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021, Bloomsburg (27-19) is one of nine teams to snap its NCAA Tournament appearance drought this spring, and of those nine teams, it was the team to have made the Tournament most recently after hoisting its second consecutive PSAC Title in 2021, after also being named PSAC Champions in 2019 when the Tournament was shortened due to rain.
Bloomsburg returns to action for the first time in two weeks after winning three of four from Mansfield on the final weekend of the regular season, as the Huskies narrowly missed the PSAC Tournament field but still heard their names called on the Selection Show on Sunday night.
Led by the PSAC East player of the Year, Grant Russo, Bloomsburg enters the Tournament with a .318 team batting average with 314 runs scored and 275 RBI with 416 hits, including 95 extra-base hits (71 doubles, 17 home runs, and seven triples). Russo leads the charge, batting .429 on the year with 63 hits, including 12 doubles, three home runs, and three triples, and has scored 53 runs, while driving in 26. Russo is also a threat on the bases, going 36-for-41 on stolen base attempts. Dylan Hirsh and Matt Freda are second and third, batting .357 and .326, as Hirsh leads the team in RBI with 33, thanks in part to seven doubles.
On the mound, Aiden Murphy is 7-2 with a 3.69 ERA and a .225 batting average against with 56 strikeouts in 57.2 innings of work, while Brandon Wozniak is 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA and a .275 batting average against with 24 strikeouts in 48.1 innings, including two complete games. Andrew Armstrong is 3-4 with a 3.93 ERA and a .272 batting average against with 55 strikeouts in 52.2 innings of work. Out of the bullpen, Pete Modrovsky has been among the first names called by the Huskies this year as he has pitched 20.1 innings over the course of 12 appearances, striking out 13, while posting a 2.66 ERA and a .236 batting average against.
With a Win
With a victory, West Chester would pick up its first NCAA Tournament win since 2023 and advance to a best-of-three series with the winner of the East Stroudsburg/Bloomsburg game that begins the Tournament on Thursday morning, in need of two wins to return to Super Regionals for the first time since 2022, when the team advanced to the National Semifinals in Cary, North Carolina.
