With the number one seed at stake for the playoffs, West Chester’s baseball team needed to sweep Mansfield University this weekend as the chips finally fell for the PSAC East standings. At the end of Saturday, there were nothing but smiling faces as the Golden Rams left the diamond with their second straight PSAC East title to their name after defeating Mansfield 9-5 in the first and crushing the Mounties in the second contest 14-2. As the top seed in the division, the Golden Rams will host Shippensburg Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the first round of the playoffs.
In the opener, Matt Cotellese and Nate Guers both homered. Brett Wallace tallied a pair of doubles for the Golden Rams, finishing the day with 2 for 4, three RBIs and one run scored.
Chris Powl went five innings in the opener to pick up the win, striking out three Mounties, allowing only four earned runs and six hits.
In the second game of the day, the Golden Rams’ bats were smoking early in the game, with 10 runs coming in the second inning alone en route to a 14-0 lead. Cotellese, smashed his second homer for the day. Cotallese Wallace, Mark Gilliford, Joey Yeager, and Kyle Bechter each tallied doubles.
David Slusser earned a complete game victory Saturday afternoon, allowing only seven base hits.
After sweeping East Stroudsburg University earlier this week, the Golden Rams clinched their third playoff berth in the last four seasons, with a 30-14 overall record (14-4 within division). This weekend will solidify the PSAC East, as Mansfield finishes with the third seed following their performance on Friday. The first two seeds will be decided after the Golden Rams’ visit the Mounties in Mansfield on Saturday for this season’s finale. If WCU wins, they will clinch the number one seed in the division.
The Golden Rams’ victory over Mansfield University in the first game of the double header, 17-8, on Friday, marked the team’s fifth consecutive 30 win season, after never having 30 wins in a season, prior to 2002. They lost the second game of the afternoon, 6-4, but remained atop the PSAC East standings after Kutztown split a double header with Millersville University.
Once again, the Golden Rams’ bats were smoking early in the game, scoring 10 runs in the first inning of the opener. Joey Yeager continued his hot streak, batting 3 for 4 with four RBI’S and two runs scored, while Nate Guers went 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI. Matt Cotollese was 3 for 4, with a double, two RBI and three runsscored.
Frank Gailey received an easy win, throwing for five innings and striking out three.
In the second game, Mansfield scored two runs in the first inning off of West Chester’s Ryan Gerber. The Golden Rams responded in the bottom of the second inning with two outs, when John Molyneux’s double knocked in two runs and tied the game.
Mansfield scored two more runs in the third and seventh inning, for their 6-3 victory. With this win, the Mansfield Mounties clinched the third seed in the PSAC East.