The Golden Rams scored in seven of their eight plate appearances to beat the Devils of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia 14-4 on Tuesday afternoon at Serpico Stadium. Ryan Gerber picked up his fourth win of the year as a reliever. He only had to pitch two 2/3 innings and allowed just one run and three hits. Matt Redcay, West Chester University’s male player of the week, extended his hitting streak to seven games with a double, a single and two runs scored along with an RBI. The catcher, Brett Wallace, hit a home run over the left field fence for one of his two hits, and he also scored two runs and had two RBI. Erik Ruff also contributed to the hit fest against the Devils, pitching with a double and a walk with two runs scored of his own. Jeff Lamb drew three bases on balls. Michael LaRosa, one of the three team captain’s and who is currently on injured reserved for dropping a weight on his toe, stated, “The team is hitting better than we have all season.” He also said, “Everyone is excited for the next few games coming up. They’re big ones, and if we win, we will be the team to beat in the PSAC East.” LaRosa hopes to be back on the field next week.
The victory over the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia is West Chester University’s 25 of the season, and lifted the Golden Rams to 11 place. Even though the Devils now fall to 7-14 for the season and are not in contention to do anything in the playoffs, the win for the Rams was a good one because it gave them excellent confidence going into a single game on Wednesday, April 7, against Shippensburg at Serpico Stadium.
The Golden Rams were still buzzing from the victory over the Devils when Shippensburg came into town. They were hoping that their hot bats and excellent pitching would carry over into Wednesday. Well, the Rams were as hot as ever. Matt Redcay reached base four times, Josh Yocum drove in two runs and Jeff Brennan pitched an awesome game to pick up his seventh win of the season. The No.11 Rams topped No. 3 Shippensburg 7-2.
Redcay has been proving himself to be a huge catalyst for the Golden Rams baseball squad. The senior shortstop made several outstanding plays on defense and has an eight game hitting streak going. He has also gone five for seven in his last seven trips to the plate.
The Rams are coming off three huge wins from the last time these two teams met only last weekend. West Chester University dominated the first game of the double header 8-0 with excellent pitching by Kyle Frees, who improved his record to 3-1 on the season. Frees struck out seven batters and gave up no walks in a complete game shutout.
On Wednesday, April14, the Golden Rams will be facing off against the University of the Sciences of Philadelphia again in a 3:30 p.m. game at home. There will also a 1:00 p.m. game on Saturday against Bloomsburg for a PSAC showdown, also at Serpico Stadium. Come out to the game and support the first- place WCU Rams.