WEST CHESTER, Pa.- Hosting the Atlantic Regional Tournament for the third year in a row and the fourth time since 2022, the No. 11/12 West Chester University baseball team (40-10) opened the NCAA Tournament with a win for the first time since 2023 as the Golden Rams stormed past fifth-seeded Bloomsburg (27-21) for a 15-4 victory at Serpico Stadium on Thursday afternoon. With this win, West Chester advances to a best-of-three series with East Stroudsburg, which will begin tomorrow at Serpico Stadium as the Golden Rams and Warriors do battle for a spot in the Super Regionals once again, while Bloomsburg finishes its season at 27-21 with its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2021.

"It is certainly nice to get the proverbial monkey off our back and get back in the right column with an NCAA Tournament win today," acknowledged head coach Mike LaRosa. "We got some pressure off with this win, and I think we're in a really good frame of mind heading into the rest of the weekend. We had a little bit of a sloppy first inning, which I think can be attributed to some nerves, but we responded really well and kept stringing together good at-bats and good innings until we got the separation we were looking for."

West Chester found itself down 2-0 early but responded with a run in the home half of the first, second, and third before exploding for 11 runs on six hits, five walks, and a hit-by-pitch in the home half of the fourth to take a commanding 14-2 lead and never trail again.

Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North) drove home West Chester's first run of the game with a sac fly in the first inning before a perfect bunt from Christian Michak (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) tied the game at 2-2.

Patrick Gozdan (Warminster, Pa./Archbishop Wood) drove in the go-ahead run in the third with an RBI sac fly before West Chester exploded for 11 runs in the fourth, including a two-RBI double by Stalker, which moved the lead from 12-2 to 14-2after back-to-back RBI singles by Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) and Drew Simpson (Hockessin, Del./DMA) had gotten the lead to 12-2 moments earlier.

Stalker's double was the lone run-scoring extra-base hit of the big inning for West Chester, but not the only of the game, as Strawhecker doubled home a run of his own in the sixth after West Chester had surrendered a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to stretch the lead to 15-4 after it had been cut to 14-4.

Strawhecker was 3-for-4 at the plate with three RBI and a pair of runs as one of four Golden Rams with a multi-hit game in the victory. Stalker was 3-for-4 with three RBI, while Michak was 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run, and Carter Rust (Liberty Township, Ohio/Lakota West) was 2-for-4 with a pair of walks, three runs scored and an RBI in the 11-run victory, which gave West Chester its first NCAA Tournament win since May 2023 when the team vanquished Charleston (W.V.), who Rust starred for prior to joining the Golden Rams, at Millersville in that edition of the NCAA Tournament.

"I was really happy with our approach all day today," said LaRosa. "Bloomsburg has a really talented pitching staff, but I think top-to-bottom we did a good job wearing them down and getting some timely hits and some important walks to bounce back from a two-run first inning and pick up a nice victory."

Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview) (11-2) got his 11^th win of the season, which tied the Golden Rams single-season win record, allowing just two runs on six hits and a walk, while striking out a pair.

Evan Wineburg (Norristown, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Ryan DeHaven (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) each worked two innings in relief. Wineburg allowed two runs on three hits, while walking one and striking out another, while DeHaven contributed two scoreless innings, allowing just a hit and a walk, while striking out a pair. Patrick Taney (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) finished the game for West Chester, allowing a hit, while striking out two in a scoreless ninth.

"Our pitching staff was excellent again today as well," agreed LaRosa. "We got a great start from Costa (Julian Costa) and then strong bullpen work from Ryan DeHaven, Evan Wineburg, and Patrick Taney to finish it off and put us in a great spot from a pitching standpoint heading into day two of the Regional tomorrow."

Andrew Armstrong (3-5) suffered the loss for Bloomsburg, allowing three runs on four hits and four walks in 2.2 innings of work as one of five Huskies pitchers used in the season-ending setback. Brandon Wozniak turned in the best effort of any Bloomsburg pitcher on Thursday, allowing one run on three hits in 4.1 innings of work in relief.

Up Next

West Chester will begin a three-game series against East Stroudsburg tomorrow afternoon at Serpico Stadium, starting at 12 p.m. West Chester will serve as the home team.