KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- The Kutztown University baseball team celebrated eight seniors prior to Sunday's PSAC East doubleheader against West Chester, but the visiting Golden Rams left North Campus Field with 9-3 and 11-3 victories.

GAME 1
West Chester 9, Kutztown 3

In a game much closer than the final score indicated, Kutztown and West Chester were deadlocked through five innings until Joe Zirolli hit a go-ahead solo home run to right center with one out in the sixth for a 3-2 Golden Ram lead.

WCU tacked on six runs in the seventh courtesy of four doubles and five walks.

The Golden Rams (14-9 PSAC East, 24-13) drew first blood with RBI doubles in their first at-bats from Jared Melone and Luke Cantwell. KU countered with consecutive doubles by lead-off hitter Bo Rottet (Tamaqua, Pa./Tamaqua) and Mike Villa (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton), and a run-scoring single from freshman Andy Blum (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) to tie the game at two.

Rottet collected his 100th career run scored on Villa's double.

Doug Conrad (West Chester, Pa./Downingtown West) stifled West Chester's hitters for much of the afternoon. After allowing two runs in the first, he didn't surrender a hit again until the sixth when Zirolli got to him for the round-tripper. At one point, the Kutztown (4-19, 5-28) southpaw retired eight straight Golden Rams.

The redshirt junior's final line was not befitting of his effort. West Chester took advantage of Conrad's rising pitch count in the seventh, leaving him with nine runs against on eight hits and six walks. Conrad struck out five and came up an out shy of throwing the Golden Bears' second complete game in as many days.

Rottet, Villa and Blum each doubled for the Maroon and Gold. Blum had a team-high two hits, while Zach Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) and Jacoby Pate (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township) added one apiece.

David Mervis lasted 5.2 innings for WCU in picking up the win. He scattered seven hits, walked four and fanned seven. Andrew Scarpelli, who entered in a 3-2 game, got the final four outs for his second save.

Zirolli homered and doubled, Melone knocked in three and Cantwell had two hits and two RBIs to highlight West Chester's offense.

GAME 2
West Chester 11, Kutztown 3

West Chester pounced early, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings and 11 unanswered to secure the weekend series.

Jared Melone hit a three-run shot to center in the first, and Jon Hansen (solo) and Justin Horn (two-run) homered in the second for the Golden Rams (15-9 PSAC East, 25-13).

Culver Hughes held the Golden Bears hitless through four innings. Connor Teschko (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley Regional) broke up his no-no bid with a double to the gap in right to start the bottom of the fifth.

Freshman Brandon Heere (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg) blasted the first pitch he received from Joe Peluso onto the hill in left for his first career home run, a 3-run shot, in the bottom of the seventh as KU (4-20, 5-29) avoided being shut out for the seventh time this season.

Teschko was 2-for-2 with a walk and run scored in accounting for half of Kutztown's four hits. Heere and Jake Augustus (Schnecksville, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) had the others.

Zach Peters (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) took the loss, giving up six runs on five hits in two innings. Zach Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) struck out two and didn't allow a run in 1.2 innings of relief late for the Maroon and Gold.

SENIORS HONORED
Kutztown still has two home dates remaining, but with the West Chester games being moved from Friday to a Sunday, the Golden Bears took advantage of the weekend date to honor their 2019 senior class.

Recognized in a short pregame ceremony were Garrett Alread (Victor, N.Y./Victor), Jeff Charles (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall), Michael Hunter (Mertztown, Pa./Brandywine Heights), Nick Lafferty (Croydon, Pa./Archbishop Wood), Tanner Miller (Elizabethville, Pa./Upper Dauphin), Bo Rottet (Tamaqua, Pa./Tamaqua), Mike Villa (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton) and Jeff Zebrowski (Chester Springs, Pa./Bishop Shanahan).

ON DECK
Monday's non-conference game at Wilmington (Del.) has been canceled. The Golden Bears host Chestnut Hill on Wednesday at 3 p.m., before closing out the season next Friday and Saturday against Mansfield.