Marauders top West Chester to pull within one win of Super Regional

Friday, May 19

Millersville, PA

1:00 PM

Millersville University

42-8

West Chester

32-19

Millersville

West Chester

Photo by: Mark Palczewski

Marauders top West Chester to pull within one win of Super Regional

5/19/2023 5:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - You never could have guessed that Matt Seibert was making his first postseason start in a pivotal game of the NCAA Atlantic Regional. The freshman lefty delivered 6 2/3 steady innings and was backed by an offense that struck early and often as Millersville defeated West Chester 8-5 to pull within one win of advancing to the NCAA Super Regional.

Seibert worked quickly and effectively, challenging West Chester's hitters repeatedly by keeping the ball in the zone. He did not walk a batter, and he surrendered eight hits for three runs but he also held West Chester's first three hitters to a combined 0-for-10.

"His performance was not surprising," said Millersville head coach Jon Shehan. "The kid has pitched in huge games--state semifinals, state finals. He's won district championships. The kid has ice-cold veins. We had a pretty good feeling he was going to go out there and give us a quality start today."

It certainly did not hurt Seibert's confidence to be staked to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Millersville played as the road team on its home field. With two outs in the top of the first, Bren Taylor started a rally with a single, and Sam Morris followed with another single. Taylor scored on Keegan Soltis' RBI single up the middle.

Morris', the hero of Millersville's first win of the regional, continued his torrid start to NCAA play as he recorded hits in his first three at bats, extending a run of eight-straight hits to start the regional. He drove in two. Taylor, hitting in front of Morris, went 3-for-4 with three runs. Keegan Soltis also went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Leadoff hitter Jimmy Losh doubled, tripled and scored twice. Thomas Caufield produced a double, single, run and three RBIs.

Millersville's lineup was patient against West Chester starter Joe Sperone, working deep counts and the strategy was effective as Millersville's leadoff hitter reach second base and six consecutive innings from the second through the seventh. Sperone threw 83 pitches in 4 1/3 innings. Millersville tagged him for eight hits, three HBP's and two walks. The Marauders finished with 15 hits.

"I thought our bats were really good," said Shehan. "I don't know how many hits we had today but a lot of them were leadoff. We had hit-by-pitches, drew walks. We had long at bats early and put Sperone on the rocks. That was one of our goals was to get him out of the game early an get into their bullpen."

It wasn't until the sixth inning, however, that Millersville built a comfortable lead. A four-run inning started with a play that only Jimmy Losh could make. Losh tripled to start the inning and while Caufield has made a career in Black & Gold out of hitting balls into the gap and over the fence, he hit a dribbler on a check swing. The ball rolled to a stop several feet in front of home plate, but Losh read the ball on the ground, never hesitated and broke for home, sliding in head first ahead of the toss to the plate from pitcher Dylan Howanitz, who had just entered the game. That heads-up baseball play gave Millersville a 4-2 lead, and the inning soon broke wide open.

"I told Bill Reuter, the third-base umpire, that Jimmy Losh is out of the 1930s, 1940s mold of ball player. He's just a really good baseball player. He does all the little things well. He plays hard. That's just a perfect example of what we've been watching here for five years. It's been a pleasure to coach him."

Fittingly, it was the red-hot Morris that put the exclamation point on the big inning as his ground-rule double over Luke Cantwell's head in right field plated two runs for a four-run lead. Keegan Soltis followed with an RBI single. Back-to-back doubles from Losh and Caufield in the eighth put the Marauders up, 8-2.

Seibert retired the first two batters of the seventh but then gave up back-to-back hits and a run. With five-run lead Millersville leaned on Colby Gromlich to closeout the game. Gromlich easily navigated his first 1 2/3 innings, but in the ninth West Chester drew three walks to load the bases. With two strikes and two outs, Cantwell laced a single into right center field scoring two runs and bringing the tying run to the plate. The Millersville coaching staff trusted in Gromlich rather than going to the pen and did not even take a trip to the mound. Gromlich rewarded that trust with a strike out of three-pitch strikeout of Corey Stouffer for the 27th out of the game.

It was the second straight game in which Millersville used just two pitchers with the starter going past the sixth and one bullpen pitcher taking it the rest of the way. That leaves the Marauders fully stocked for what could be a clinching game three Saturday at 11 AM.

"It's actually tough because we have to figure out what we are doing from a starting pitching aspect," said Shehan. "We have enough guys, but we have to figure out the right guys for tomorrow. (Pitching coach Ryan Kramer) has done a great job preparing these guys; I give him a lot of credit."

West Chester will need a win in the early game on Saturday to force a deciding third game between the teams. That game would immediately follow the 11 a.m. game. The team that advances through Saturdays will face the winner of the Seton Hill bracket on May 26-27. If Millersville wins one game Saturday, it will host the Super Regional.