MILLERSVILLE, Pa.- Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview) carried a no-hitter into the seventh and helped lead the West Chester University baseball team (43-10) to a dominant 7-2 victory over Millersville (39-17) to open the Super Regionals at Cooper Park on Thursday night.

Costa picked up his 12^th win of the season, which sets a new program record for wins in a single season after the redshirt senior had tied the single-season wins record last week in the NCAA Tournament opening victory over Bloomsburg.

West Chester continued to be a strong first-inning team in the win on Thursday, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the home half of the first, thanks in part to a three-run home run by Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North), which took the lead from one to four with just one swing.

"Jumping out to an early lead again was great," acknowledged head coach Mike LaRosa. "It really took the pressure off for us, and then we got a great pitching performance from Costa, and we turned in another great, complete team win."

Stalker was 1-for-2 with three RBI and three walks in the victory, as eight of nine players in the Golden Ram lineup recorded a hit in Thursday night's victory, with five different players turning in multi-hit performances as the Golden Rams opened the Super Regionals with a victory.

After a leadoff single by Carter Rust (Liberty Township, Ohio/Lakota West) and a Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove) hit-by-pitch, Drew Simpson (Hockessin, Del./DMA) gave the Golden Rams an early 1-0 lead with an RBI single through the right side. Stalker added to the rally with a three-run blast to right, which gave the Golden Rams a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the second.

Millersville got its first baserunner of the game in the second via a leadoff walk, but this runner was erased quickly with a doubleplay as Costa kept the Marauders off the scoreboard heading into the home second.

Millersville starter, Alex Kuehn settled in and worked a scoreless second before West Chester added two runs to its lead in third with an RBI double by Christian Michak (Kingston, Pa./Wyoming Valley West), which Landen Rozich (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) followed up with an RBI single to stretch the lead to 6-0 as part of a string of four straight hits for West Chester, including three doubles as the Golden Rams hit the six-run mark, which has proved crucial this season as the Golden Rams entered play on Thursday at 34-1 in games with six runs or more.

Costa was dominant through five innings, needing just 59 pitches to deliver five hitless innings, allowing just one walk, while striking out three, including Brady Ebbert to finish off a 1,2,3 fifth inning.

Kuehn lasted just three innings on Thursday night, allowing six runs on 10 hits, while walking and striking out another.

Carlos Caraballo, who had yet to appear in the postseason heading into Thursday night's game, turned in three clutch innings for the Marauders in relief, allowing just two hits and three walks, while striking out five, including three punchouts in a scoreless sixth inning.

After a strikeout to open the seventh, his fifth of the night, which kept the Marauders hitless through 6.1, Matthew Williams picked up the first hit of the game for the Marauders with a hard-hit line drive into left center to give the hosts a one-out baserunner. Jimmy Kirk followed this up with a one-out walk, which prompted a mound visit from pitching coach John Fleming. Costa induced a sky-high fly ball from Sammy Laux on a 3-2 pitch, and it just eluded the outstretched arms of Michak to help the Marauders load the bases with one out in the seventh.

Costa got his second out of the inning on a fly ball to center off the bat of Xavier Smith, but it was enough to score Williams, which cut the Golden Rams' lead to 6-1. With his 101^st pitch of the evening, Costa got a lazy fly ball to shallow right as Gozdan made the call and the catch to finish off his seventh inning of work.

Caraballo got the first out of the seventh before Jon Sheehan turned to Brady Grimes to face Rozich and the top of the Golden Ram lineup with one away in the seventh. Grimes worked out of the seventh to keep the deficit where it was at 6-1.

Simpson moved from third to the mound to start the eighth as Costa's day was finished after allowing just one run on two hits and two walks, while striking out five in seven excellent innings to earn his program-record setting 12^th win of the season.

"I felt really good today," acknowledged Costa. "I felt like I did a good job of staying calm and controlling my speed as I got down the mound and just consistently pounding the zone."

Simpson struck out a pair in a scoreless eighth inning before West Chester threatened to add to its lead with a double in the gap off the bat of Hunter Smith (Martinsburg, Pa./Central), which, after a wild pitch, helped the Golden Rams stretch their lead to 7-1 heading into the ninth.

Millersville got a run back in the ninth, but it was not enough as West Chester held off the Marauders for a 7-2 victory to open the Super Regionals at Cooper Park on Thursday night as Simpson finished the game with his third strikeout to finish off his second inning of work.

Asked about being a win away from a return to Cary, North Carolina, for the first time since 2022, LaRosa said, "We can't let ourselves get too far ahead in thinking about that. Millersville is a really talented team that we know is going to continue to battle, so we have to do the best we can to approach tomorrow like the series is 0-0 and just stick to the approach that has helped us get to this point."

Notes

West Chester improves to 35-1 on the year when scoring six runs or more. The Golden Rams also improve to 24-1 when scoring in the first and 25-2 when scoring first.

Up Next

West Chester and Millersville will return to action on Friday at 12 p.m., looking to potentially finish the Super Regionals before heavy rain moves into the Delaware Valley late Friday through Saturday night.