WEST LAWN, PA (May 15, 2010) – The Kutztown University baseball team will need to beat long time rival West Chester University to earn a trip to the 2010 NCAA Division II Championship held in Cary, North Carolina next week.
The Golden Bears (39-13) were 10-5 winners over West Virginia State on Saturday afternoon to force their way into the regional championship. West Chester followed with a 7-2 win to meet Kutztown in a championship showdown at 1 p.m. on Owls Field at Ted Palka Park.
This is very familiar territory for the Golden Rams (39-12) who will be making their six straight regional final appearance. KU and West Chester met in the regional's opening round in 2008 with West Chester winning 5-3. The last time the two squared off in the regional final was 2007 when the Golden Bears won 9-1 to go to the College World Series.
In conference play this season, West Chester won the first meeting followed by three straight Golden Bear victories. Shayne Houck (Boyertown, PA/Boyertown) powered the Golden Bears in the fifth inning with a three run home run to help start the three game winning streak. West Chester pitched around him in the second set of double headers with four base-on-balls and plunking him three times.
The Golden Rams were led by Kevin McGrath who finished off the series final two games 5 for 6 with three runs and two RBIs.
The West Chester offense has been led by Joe Wendle's .401 batting average and Matt Baer has a team high 11 home runs. The Golden Bears have been spurred by Houck's record breaking season in home runs (17), RBIs (75), runs (72), doubles (23) and total bases (155). Jared Frey (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) has been a tremendous complement with a .409 batting average and 46 RBIs.
Jordan Lehman has been the ace for the Golden Rams all season. He shutout the Golden Bears in West Chester's victory April 10th and was the winning pitcher in the regional opener against Mansfield and is a possibility to start on short rest. Along with Lehman, West Chester will use any pitcher that has anything left in the tank.
Staff ace Nate Reed pitched 6.2 effective innings in the Golden Bears loss to California. Tyler Persun (Mount Joy, PA/Donegal) pitched 3.2 innings for a no-decision in game two and senior Ryan Cassidy (Langhorne, PA/Archbishop Wood) are possible candidates to throw for KU.
In the event the Golden Bears force a second game, the first pitch is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.
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