MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - West Chester officially stopped Millersville's run of consecutive PSAC East titles at four and became the first team since 2012 to sweep a four-game series from Millersville. A common theme in the series, West Chester broke a late tie for a 5-2 win in Friday's opener and then rallied from a 6-1 deficit to win 8-6 in game two.
In three of the four games, Millersville (37-13, 23-9 PSAC East) held leads in the fifth inning or later, but West Chester (39-7, 25-7 PSAC East) and its PSAC-best offense found ways to top the PSAC's top-ranked pitching staff. West Chester's game one win and East Stroudsburg's series finale win over Kutztown gave the Warriors the PSAC East title. It is the first time since 2007 that Millersville or West Chester did not win the division.
Millersville knotted Friday's first game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth on
Hunter Stevens' sacrifice fly, but West Chester immediately answered with a Jon Demucci RBI double in the fifth and a Sean Szestowicki homer in the sixth. Millersville had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with one out, but reliever Dylan Howanitz recorded a strikeout and fly out to end the treat. Trailing by three, Millersville went down in order in the seventh.
Millersville starter
Alex Mykut (9-2) worked six innings but allowed four earned runs for the second time in three starts. Joe Sperone (6-1) picked up the win by allowing one earned run in five innings.
Millersville built a 6-1 lead in game two, scoring four runs in the bottom of the fourth. But West Chester quickly retaliated with a six-run fifth inning that included six hits. Szestowicki tied the game with a triple, and Julian Costa doubled in the go-ahead run with two outs. Millersville had no answer. Six of the next seven hitters were retired, and in the seventh,
Justin Taylor drew a leadoff walk, and
Amani Jones singled with two outs to bring the winning run to the plate, but Kyle Kearns (1-0), who pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings in relief, got
Jeff Sabater to ground out to first base.
West Chester managed the win despite receiving just 1 2/3 innings from starter Ben Jones. The Golden Rams used four pitchers in the fourth inning alone, but Kearns' performance made the difference.
UP NEXT
The two losses on Friday pushed Millersville into the No. 3 seed from the PSAC East for the PSAC Tournament. Millersville plays Wednesday, May 8 at 9:30 a.m., against IUP, the PSAC West's No. 2 seed. That is a rematch of last year's first round that IUP won.
