VIDEO: Richardson Walk-Off Homer

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University baseball team split its final two games of its four-game series with No. 17 West Chester University on Saturday, falling 2-0 in the first game before coming back from a five-run deficit to take game two 6-5 in walk-off fashion via a two-out, two-run homerun from Dariel Richardson (Reading, Pa./Reading). 
 
Over the past two days, manager Chris Blum and his squad have sent a message to the rest of the teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in case they weren't paying attention before this weekend's series with WCU. Don't ever count out this 2018 KU Baseball team. 
 
A day after making a six-run comeback to earn a split on the road, the Maroon and Gold went back to their bag of tricks again. This time, they scored six runs in the final four innings highlighted by Richardson's walk-off blast to left to pull off a stunning comeback over the nationally-ranked and defending national champion Golden Rams. 
 
Gavian Fogarty-Harnish (3-1) earned the win for KU, pitching a scoreless seventh to allow Kutztown one final chance for its heroics. The Golden Bears had cut WCU's five-run lead to one before Fogarty-Harnish took the mound, scoring a run in both the fourth and fifth innings and then adding two more in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-4 in West Chester's favor. 
 
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Ryan Weller (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown Area) delivered a clutch hit to left field in a pinch-hitting role to allow Richardson to come to the plate. Down to his last strike, Richardson snapped an 0-for-15 hitting slump in the best possible way, crushing the 2-2 offering for no-doubt long ball over the left field fence. 
 
Kutztown (15-16, 9-11 PSAC) earns its fourth series split of the season in conference play and its first with West Chester (25-11, 13-7) since 2013. 
 
Game One
Anthony DeVito (Philadelphia, Pa./Central (Mercer County C.C.)) (3-3) delivered a solid pitching performance for Kutztown in game one, throwing a complete game with 7.0 innings pitched, scattering four hits and giving up just two earned runs while striking out three. DeVito didn't get much help, however, as the Maroon and Gold managed just three hits off WCU starter Mike Cipolla (5-1), who earned the complete game victory. 
 
West Chester's two runs were both of the manufactured variety as a sacrifice fly in the first inning allowed the Golden Rams to take an early 1-0 lead. DeVito escaped some trouble in the first with a double play, but then settled down well, only being touched up again in the sixth for a WCU RBI single. 
 
Offense was at a premium for both sides in today's opener as they combined for just seven total hits. Cipolla's final line was 7.0 innings pitched and 91 total pitches, giving up three hits and two walks, striking out two. 

Game Two 
The second game looked as if it would be much of the same early on for the KU offense as it managed just two hits in the first three innings of West Chester's Bill Ford. 
 
For WCU, it got off to another good start, scoring three runs in the top of the first off of Golden Bear starter Mike Kammerer (Allentown, Pa./Allentown Central Catholic). After going quietly in the top of the second and third innings, West Chester scored two more in the top of the fourth, chasing Kammerer as the Golden Rams pulled ahead 5-0. 
 
Kutztown answered in the home half of the fourth, scoring its first run on a bases-loaded walk by Richardson. David Brown (Hatboro, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) came into to relieve Kammerer and pitched a scoreless fifth, allowing KU to continue to chip away in the bottom half. Nick Lafferty (Croydon, Pa./Archbishop Wood) singled through the left side, plating Tanner Miller (Elizabethville, Pa./Upper Dauphin Area) to make it 5-2, getting the wheels churning on the KU comeback train. 
 
Zach Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College) then entered for Kutztown on the mound in the sixth, holding the deficit at three runs with a 1-2-3 inning. Miller provided a clutch hit of his own in the sixth to make the score 5-4, a two-run double which scored Jeff Zebrowski (Chester Springs, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) and Jeff Charles (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall (Lehigh Carbon C.C.)) after the inning was extended courtesy of a West Chester fielding error. 
 
KU then finished it off after Fogarty-Harnish worked out of a jam in the top of the seventh, stranding two baserunners in the frame. Richardson's home run to win it was his team-leading fifth of the season. 
 
The Golden Bears get back to the diamond on Tuesday, April 24 against Wilmington in a non-conference matchup on North Campus Field at 3 p.m.