Butler, Pa. - West Chester scored five runs in the second inning and despite a furious Millersville rally, the Golden Rams held on to defeat the top-seeded Marauders 9-7 in Wednesday's PSAC Championship game.
The Marauders (47-5) entered the final game with a 3-0 tournament record while West Chester (36-12), which had lost Tuesday evening, had to top Seton Hill in the early game Wednesday to reach the championship round. West Chester and Millersville both had 13 hits, but the Golden Rams took full advantage of four walks and four hit batsmen.
Millersville took three of four from West Chester in the regular season series but the Golden Rams beat
Reid Anderson in game four. The same story played out Wednesday. The Golden Rams put the Marauders in a big hole, jumping all over Anderson in the second inning. Six hits and a hit batsman put the Golden Rams in front 5-0. The lead grew to 6-0 with Anderson still on the mound in the fourth.
Millersville slowly battled back. A West Chester error with two outs in the first put the first run on the board, and the Marauders scored three in the fifth using a two-run double from
Jeremy Musser and a sacrifice fly from
David Summerfield.
The seventh inning proved a turning point. West Chester had one runner on with two outs when the reliever
Logan Grant, who was making his second appearance and pitching in his sixth inning of the tournament, hit consecutive batters. A wild pitch caused a play at the the plate. Grant, covering home, put the tag on a sliding Clay Harwick. Harwick was called safe on the bang-bang play. It was the second play at the plate of the game. Marauder boss Coach
Jon Shehan was ejected after arguing the call. Grant walked in another run, making the score 9-4.
Millersville was not finished. The Marauders answered with a two-run single from Summerfield in the seventh. In the eighth,
Dan Neff legged out a triple and scored on a
Chas McCormick single to center. West Chester reliever Josh McClain, however, ended the inning with a 4-6-3 double play.
Down to its final three outs, Millersville received a one-out single from Musser. Snyder, who had two hits on the day, ripped a liner that was snared by third baseman Anthony Salamone. Salamone quickly fired to first to double off Musser, ending the game with the tying run at the plate.
It was West Chester's first PSAC Championship since 2012. Millersville, meanwhile, was making its third consecutive title game appearance, finishing as the runner-up in 2014 and winning the title in 2015.
West Chester receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Atlantic Regional. Millersville, the No. 1-ranked team in the regional rankings the previous week is the favorite to be the No. 1 seed and host the tournament. The field will be announced Sunday at ncaa.com. The regional begins on May 19.
