In an unpredictable week for the West Chester baseball team (13-4, 5-1 PSAC), three games were moved due to rain. They were able to split their only two games of the week, an away double header against Shippensburg (8-11-1, 3-3 PSAC) on Saturday that was originally scheduled for Friday.
Due to rain, the double header scheduled against Shippensburg, at the Raider’s, was moved to Saturday, while the home double header scheduled against the same Shippensburg squad for Saturday was moved back a day to Sunday, along with the accompanying alumni event. Tuesday’s away game against Wilmington University (13-9) was also rescheduled due to rain and moved to Sunday, April 2.
In the first game of Saturday’s double header, pitcher Dan McCartin (4-0) was able to go the full seven innings for the Rams in a winning effort, recording seven Ks with only one walk and zero earned runs to his name. McCartin only gave up five hits in his seven innings of pitching, behind a strong outing from his fielders, recording nine fly outs and three groundouts on his way to his forth victory of the season.
WCU was able to capitalize on a fourth inning error by the Shippensburg left fielder with a fly ball hit by Shane Dressler, and they were able to place the one and only run by Nick Ward in the game in route to their seventh consecutive win at the time.
The Rams’ winning streak shortly came to an end in the next game of the double header with a heartbreaking 5-6 loss after a comeback fell short in the top half of the seventh inning from West Chester. Pitcher Eric Close (2-1) went seven innings for the Rams, surrendering six earned runs on seven hits on his way to his first loss of the season.
First baseman Jared Melone led the way for the Rams in the losing effort, going 2-4 with three RBIs and the other two runs scored for the losing West Chester squad. Melone was able to keep West Chester alive in the top half of the seventh inning with a one out solo home run to cut the Rams’ deficit to 5-6, but Shippensburg was able to close out the game in the next two at-bats to end WCU’s 5-0 beginning to PSAC play.
West Chester will finish their back-to-back PSAC double headers against Shippensburg with the rained out two games from Friday’s schedule being played Sunday, April 2 at 1 and 3 p.m. The Rams will be back on schedule this Thursday and Friday as they take on Millersville University (17-7, 3-3 PSAC) in back-to-back double headers starting Friday at West Chester and finishing Saturday at Millersville.
Maxwell Randolph can be reached at MR829829@wcupa.edu.