West Chester cruises to 12-3 win over University of Indianapolis in the Division II baseball championship
West Chester will face UT Tyler on Sunday in the winner's bracket. “It was a good, complete game effort,” West Chester coach Mike LaRosa said.
CARY, N.C. — One big inning was all West Chester needed to get off to a winning start at the Division II baseball championship.
The Golden Rams put their first five batters on base in the first inning, and all came around to score in a 12-3 opening-round victory against the University of Indianapolis on Friday at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.
Ace Julian Costa battled through seven innings while the offense pounded out 14 hits to earn a date against UT Tyler on Sunday (6 p.m., ncaa.com) in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament.
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“Our guys all do our homework, so we knew what we were getting and were just looking to be aggressive early,” said catcher Caleb Strawhecker, who, in addition to going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs, threw out two would-be base stealers. “Putting up a lot of runs on the board was the goal, and luckily we were able to do that.”
The Rams (45-10) wasted little time establishing their dominance against the Greyhounds, who advanced to Cary, N.C., by winning the Allendale (Mich.) Super Regional.
Carter Rust led off the game with a single and scored on a double by Strawhecker, who came around on a single by Austin Stalker. After Hunter Smith walked and a perfectly placed bunt single by Patrick Gozdan loaded the bases, Tanner Donati made it 3-0 with an RBI single before two more runs scored on a double-play grounder by Harry Middlebrooks and a single by No. 8 hitter Christian Michak.
“It was a good, complete game effort,” West Chester coach Mike LaRosa said. “Jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first. Give Costa a five-spot, and I think everybody feels confident from there on that we’ve got an opportunity to take that game.”
Turns out, that first-inning outburst was enough for the Rams. But it wasn’t easy, even with their best arm on the mound.
Costa, a senior left-hander, wasn’t as sharp as he was when he held Millersville hitless into the seventh in last week’s super regional. While he allowed 10 hits and walked two, he always seemed to make the right pitches to wiggle out of trouble.
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The only runs he allowed were on a second-inning homer by Brayton Bowen and an RBI single by Austin Bode in the fourth.
Not only did Costa leave the bases loaded twice on the way to his 13th win in 15 decisions this season, he started the game by picking off the first two UIndy runners to reach base in the top of the first. Strawhecker helped him out by throwing out two more runners trying to steal second.
“It was a little [difficult], location-wise, at the start of the game,” said Costa, who struck out seven. “Around the third inning was when I started extending my legs and worked on the mound, and everything came together.”
West Chester added to its lead with a run in the fifth and sixth, then broke the game open late with two in the seventh and three more in the eighth on a three-run homer to left-center by Rust. UIndy (39-23) got its final run in the ninth off the Rams’ bullpen.
“After the pickoffs happened [in the top of the first], we all just laughed to ourselves and said, ‘We’re good now,’” Strawhecker said. “Then it was just getting back to business, getting outs, and playing our game.”