Photo from wcupagoldenrams.com
The past few weeks have been rather rough for the Golden Rams. Tough losses against Shepherd, postponement due to COVID issues, then gut-wrenching defeats against their arch-rivals Millersville just last week really have put the Golden Rams through the wringer. Even in such tough defeats, players like Justin Horn, Luke Cantwell, Kevin Flaherty as well as others stepped up even in the midst of defeat and continued to keep fighting.
Going into this week, however, was rather different. Due to the recent postponement of a four-game series with East Stroudsburg just two weeks ago, it was re-scheduled to play on Tuesday, and West Chester came ready to play. Heading out to East Stroudsburg on a weekday is a rough task, especially on a rescheduled sudden doubleheader. West Chester came out on fire early, scoring six runs in the second inning in the first game, led by shortstop Nolan Bolton, right-fielder Drew Jarmuz, left-fielder Zack Wright and second-baseman Nick D’Amore who all let in RBIs, continuing the momentum late into the game as they continued to score for four more consecutive innings as well as holding off a late game rally by East Stroudsburg, escaping the first game in a 13–9 win.
In the second game, it was East Stroudsburg who got the first runs in the first inning before pitcher Andrew Cantwell shut them out the rest of the way. The Golden Rams scored in three straight innings once again led by familiar faces like Bolton, and a returning player into the fray in center fielder Brian Veratti, who led the charge with three RBIs in three at-bats. West Chester ended up sweeping the first double-header against East Stroudsburg in a clean 8–4 win.
After coming off two great wins against East Stroudsburg, the Golden Rams now had yet another familiar conference foe in Kutztown University in their sights. In the most recent season in 2019, West Chester went 3–1 against them in the season series. In the first matchup, West Chester once again came out swinging, scoring 10 (10!) runs in the first inning, continuing to score another 16 runs throughout the rest of the other five innings, while pitcher Braeden Fausnaught shut the Bears down, beginning the afternoon with a routing 26–3 victory.
The momentum for West Chester continued into the second game, as D’Amore and Horn stole the show with D’Amore getting a single, double and a triple while Horn homered and singled. This, as well as pitcher Culver Hughes shutting down Kutztown led to yet another routing 13–1 victory. Having taken half of the series, West Chester was in a great spot. All the momentum was in their favor, but even the most mighty have moments that they fall.
This past Saturday, West Chester traveled up to Kutztown for the final two series games, looking for a clinching game early; however, the high-powered offense that blew through the first two games seemingly came to a halt early on, as West Chester and Kutztown were scoreless until the fifth, when both sides scored two runs, leading to Kutztown scoring three more in the sixth. The Bears held onto the lead as they stole one from the Golden Rams in a 5–2 loss for West Chester. Lastly, with a hard-fought loss behind them, it was a series win on the line as West Chester came back with a vengeance. The offensive came out early, as D’Amore sent in a RBI in the first, with both teams going scoreless until the fourth inning. This effectively broke the game open as the Golden Rams scored eight in the fourth to Kutztown’s one, and West Chester scored every inning for the rest of the game, effectively sealing the victory in an 18–1 series victory over the Kutztown University Bears.
Up next for the Golden Rams comes the few final series of the season, as they travel to the Maple Zone Sports Complex in Aston to finish their series with East Stroudsburg on Tuesday, facing Shippensburg University just two days later. Go Rams!
Jeff Babcock is a fourth-year student majoring in communications and minoring in journalism. JB884128@wcupa.edu