Postseason implications abound as Marauders and Golden Rams close regular season

Thursday, April 30

Millersville, PA

1:00 PM

Millersville University

West Chester

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Postseason implications abound as Marauders and Golden Rams close regular season

4/29/2026 7:19:00 AM | Baseball

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

Countdown to Gameday

Millersville Baseball

Baseball

vs West Chester

Apr 30, 2026 at 1:00 PM

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ABOUT THE GAME

It is fitting that the PSAC East title will be decided with Millersville and No. 19 West Chester going head-to-head to close the regular season. The two programs have combined to win all but one PSAC East title since 2008. West Chester has led the pack wire-to-wire and holds a one-game lead and a head-to-head tiebreaker over East Stroudsburg while Millersville lurks three games back and can win a sixth division title in seven years by winning the series and getting some help from Kutztown. West Chester seeks its first PSAC East title since 2018. Both Millersville and West Chester have clinched PSAC Tournament berths, but with six teams playing for five spots, seeding has yet to be determined. Both Millersville and West Chester are looking to solidify their NCAA Regional resumes. Both teams were among the eight teams in consideration in the NCAA's first official listing last week. West Chester could build a strong case as the No. 1 seed with a series win while Millersville could make a run at a top-two seed with an impressive series performance.
Thursday is Senior Day at Cooper Park with Millersville recognizing its nine seniors: Mike Costello, Brady Ebbert, Jimmy Kirk, Alex Kuehn, Joe Morrissey, Rece Ritchey, Matt Shamany, Hunter Stevens and Matthew Williams. Thursday is also Alumni Day and Military Appreciation Day. Veterans and active duty service members will be honored on the field prior to the game.

BSB: Tie-breaking grand slam! pic.twitter.com/Cd1z6LJ6Ll
— Millersville Marauders (@VilleMarauders) April 21, 2026

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

Millersville has won seven in a row and eight of the last nine games, convincingly outscoring Kutztown 42-5 in last weekend's series and beating regionally ranked Wilmington 9-5 on April 21. The Marauders are a different team at home, boasting a 22-3 overall record and 10-2 PSAC East record at The Coop. Millersville boasts a team slash line of .296/.443/.464 while limiting opponents to .223/.316/.304, out-scoring teams 188-80 and out-homering opponents 23-8. It's a far different story in true road games as Millersville slashes .283/.417/.400 and opponents going .287/.410/.414. Opponents have hit 11 homers to Millersville's 10. Millersville's pitching staff has a 6.79 ERA on the road and the team's fielding percentage is .963. At home, Millersville's team ERA is 2.93 and the team fields at a .968 clip.
Matthew Williams has been heating up at just the right time. After seeing his average drop to .321 on April 21, Williams went 7 for 12 with seven runs, five RBIs, two doubles and three home runs in the series against Kutztown. Williams is back up to .338 with a team leading 42 runs and ranking second on the team with nine homers and nine doubles. Already the Millersville single-season and career home run leader, Williams is the only player in Millersville history with eight or more home runs in four seasons and is six RBIs away from becoming the first player with 40 or more RBIs in four seasons. Last weekend, Williams became the 11th player in program history to play in 200 career games and moved past Ben Snyder ‘19 into 10th place in career hits with 216. He also jumped into a tie with Derek Kline ’11 for eighth in career runs (160) and is fourth in career RBIs, trailing Bren Taylor ‘25 and Chas McCormick ’17 by two for second place. Williams is also one of just 10 players in program history with 100 career walks. He enters the weekend fifth in PSAC history in home runs.
Jimmy Kirk enters the final weekend of the regular season with 11 home runs, ranking third in the PSAC and first among all PSAC East hitters. Kirk's 49 RBIs ranks third in the PSAC and second among PSAC East hitters. Kirk could become just the third Marauder in the last decade to total 50 or more RBIs in the regular season.
Xavier Smith is also closing in on history. He is three hit by pitches away from tying Lance Miller's 2008 record of 25. Smith's 22 leads the PSAC by three. As a team, Millersville has by plunked 125 times, breaking the school record by 52. The Marauders lead the PSAC by 33 and rank third nationally.
One Marauder who isn't fazed by hitting on the road is Sammy Laux. The Marauder catcher boasts a .531 batting average with 13 RBIs in 13 road games. Laux has been Millersville's best offensive player against the PSAC East, hitting .426 (no other player is above .333) with a team-high .543 OBP and 19 RBIs. No player in the East has posted a better batting average in divisional play. Since the calendar flipped to April, Laux has been on base in all 16 games.
On the mound, Millersville's 4.30 ERA against divisional opponents ranks best among PSAC East teams. Overall, Millersville is third in the PSAC in team ERA (4.27), second in strikeouts and second in batting average against (.239). Freshman Eli Simonton ranks sixth in the PSAC with a 2.98 ERA. The last Marauder freshman to pitch 50 innings and log a sub-3.00 ERA was Conor Cook in 2021 when he won the PSAC East Freshman of the Year Award. Simonton also ranks fifth in the PSAC in batting average against (.221). Impressively, Simonton ranks 12th in the nation in walks per nine innings (1.49). He has not issued a walk in his last two starts, totaling 12 innings, and he has not walked more than one batter since his collegiate debut on Feb. 7.
Simonton isn't the only Marauder pitcher among PSAC leaders. Shamany's .217 batting average against ranks fourth, and Ritchey's .231 is sixth. Ritchey is also seventh in strikeouts.
Reliever Joe Morrissey is putting up All-America-type numbers in 2026. He's logged 37 innings in 16 appearances, going 4-0 with five saves, a 0.73 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Morrissey isn't far from Jim Morrow's school record set in 1999 of a 0.51 ERA in a minimum of 30 innings. Morrow and Tim Lynch in 1973 are the only Marauders to ever pitch at least 30 innings and post a sub-1.00 ERA. The last Marauder to record at least four wins and four saves in the same season was Tyler Yankosky in 2019, and the last Marauder to do it without taking a loss was Adam Zipko in 2014 when he went 9-0 with nine saves.

SCOUTING WEST CHESTER

West Chester is rolling, winners of 10 in a row with at least six runs scored in each of the last eight games. The Golden Rams have swept two consecutive PSAC East series and scored wins over Goldey-Beacom and Jefferson since losing three of four to Shippensburg on April 10-11. Last season, West Chester went 0-3 in the postseason, bowing in the first round of the PSAC Tournament and dropping two in a row at home in the NCAA Regional. The 2026 club is looking to make amends for that early exit. It owns the PSAC's longest active winning streak and is second only to Seton Hill in winning percentage. West Chester is a balanced club, ranking first in the PSAC in on-base percentage (.446), second in runs scored, third in home runs (46), third in stolen bases (108) and fourth in batting average (.318). The team's .972 fielding percentage is third-best in the PSAC, and its pitching staff leads the conference in ERA (4.02). West Chester's pitchers are allowing teams to hit .266, which is only ninth-best in the PSAC, but they do not give up free passes. The 89 walks issued, 30 hit batsmen and 12 wild pitches are all PSAC-best marks. West Chester leads Division II in walks allowed per nine innings (2.65) and is second in the nation in strike-to-walk ratio.
Julian Costa is certainly among the contenders for PSAC East Pitcher of the Year honors. He leads the conference with a 2.24 ERA, including a 2.48 ERA in-division. Kyle Lazer boasts a 2.43 ERA and .238 batting average allowed against the PSAC East. Millersville has a long history against Costa and Lazer. Last season, Costa gave up five runs and walked five in 4 1/3 against the Marauders. He gave up five runs on six hits and four walks in 2 2/3 in the 2024 regular season. In 2023, Costa gave up four runs on three walks and six hits in six innings in the regular season and allowed a run in relief in the super regional loss. Lazer has had more success against the Marauders. Last season, he dealt for eight innings, giving up three runs and striking out six in a complete-game winning effort. In 2024, he pitched in relief twice, allowing a run and two hits and four walks in two West Chester wins. As a freshman in 2022, he struck out three and pitched two innings for a save.
At the plate, seven West Chester hitters with at least 34 starts are hitting .321 or higher. Each of those hitters also boasts an OBP of .413 or better. Six hitters have at least four home runs. Five Golden Rams have nine or more doubles, and four have double-digit stolen bases. Hunter Smith is the team leader and ranks fifth in the PSAC with a .680 slugging percentage, while Caleb Strawhecker's 1.153 OPS is sixth.

SERIES HISTORY

Millersville won three of four games over West Chester to close the 2025 regular season, running away with the PSAC East title by a five-game margin. West Chester won game three on Anthony Boccio's walk-off double in the eighth-inning, but Millersville closed the series by scoring nine runs in the first two innings of game four. The rivalry has been among the competitive in the PSAC since Jon Shehan put the Marauders fully on the map in 2011. Before that season, it had been a full decade since the Marauders had won a series against the Golden Rams. Since 2011, Millersville holds a narrow 30-25 lead in the head-to-head series.
Since 2015, Millersville has won four series, West Chester has won four series, and the teams have split twice. West Chester swept the Marauders in 2024 and 2022 and took regular season series in 2018 and 2017.
West Chester is the only team in the PSAC East to have a winning record at Cooper Park, as it is 18-16 since it opened in 2007.
Expect a close game. Twelve of the last 13 have been decided by three runs or fewer. There have been 20 one-run games between the teams since 2011 with Millersville holding an 11-9 edge, but West Chester has won seven of the last eight games decided by one run.