West Chester uses five-run first inning to defeat UT Tyler in Division II baseball tournament

CARY, N.C. — The team that has scored first has won every game through the first three days of the Division II baseball championship.

That was a good thing for West Chester. Getting off to fast starts is what the Rams do best.

For the second straight game at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, coach Mike LaRose’s top-seeded team took control early by jumping on its opponent for five runs in its first at-bat. Just as it did in its opening victory against University of Indianapolis, WCU never looked back on the way to an 8-2 win over UT Tyler on Sunday that keeps it in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination national championship tournament.

The Rams will now get two days off while awaiting their next opponent, needing only one more victory to earn a trip to the best-of-three final series.

“We just like getting ahead early,” said left fielder Austin Stalker, who paced a 16-hit attack by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. “We know we have a target on our back wherever we go, so that first inning is big for us, getting ahead and showing them who West Chester is.”

The Rams are now 26-1 this season when scoring in the first inning and have outscored their opponents by a 76-24 margin in the opening frame.

Against UT Tyler (49-13) it was leadoff hitter Carter Rust who set the stage by lacing the fourth pitch of the game into left field for a single, stealing second, advancing to third on a Stalker single and scoring on an RBI hit by Patrick Gozdan for a 1-0 lead.

But WCU (46-10) was far from finished.

Tanner Donati drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, Christian Michak plated another with a double and Harry Middlebrooks added two more with a two-out single.

LaRosa credited hitting coach Evin Sullivan with the 5-0 start.

“He’s done a great job of preparing the guys,” LaRosa said. “Our game plan has been spot on, it seems like every game. It’s also a testament to our players to buy into and execute that game plan. We just have so much depth in our lineup. I feel like there’s never an easy out or an easy inning.”

The Rams extended their lead by scoring single runs in the second, fourth and eighth. The insurance wasn’t necessary, but the pitching trio of Kyle Lazer, Drew Simpson and Landen Rozich didn’t make things easy.

They combined to walk six and hit three batters. But other than a two-run fourth, in which Tyler got its only runs, they were able to pitch out of trouble.

The Patriots left 15 runners on base, including three in the bottom of the eighth. But after barely missing an inning-ending strikeout on a controversial check swing call, freshman reliever Rozich regained his composure. He overcame a foul popup catcher Caleb Strawhecker lost in the lights and struck out Tyler’s Drew Schmidt to end the threat.

“That was huge,” LaRosa said. “Landen is a freshman, but he doesn’t play like a freshman. The bigger the spot, the better he gets. He’s so poised on the mound. All three of those guys had big spots on the mound. Nothing seems to rattle those guys.”