SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. – After a close contest against the Rams on Friday afternoon, the Kutztown University baseball team (20-12, 7-5 PSAC East) won two tightly contest games against Shepherd (19-14, 6-9 PSAC East) in a doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Fairfax Field down in Shepherdstown, W. Va.
The two wins put KU to the 20-win mark this season, an accomplishment the program has not reached since 2016. It's another impressive mark in an impressive turnaround season for a Golden Bears' squad that only won 11 games in 2022.
Some clutch pitching and some timely hitting highlighted both wins on Saturday. The Golden Bears took game one 9-7, with a Jimmy Kerley (Indian Trail, N.C./Sun Valley) grand slam being the difference in the win. Game two was an even closer game, with the Golden Bears prevailing 5-4.
KU will look to keep the momentum going next weekend in a conference series against Mansfield. The Golden Bears and Mounties will kick off the series on Friday, April 14 at North Campus Field at 2 p.m. The team will then meet the following day at Mansfield for a doubleheader starting at noon.
Game 1: Kutztown 9, Shepherd 7
Game one started with all the momentum in KU's favor. An error in the first inning drove home KU's first run of the game to make it 1-0. An inning later, Joey Pettinelli (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown), Ethan Martini (Trevose, Pa./Father Judge), Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.), and an error on a Jason Wolff (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) hit helped drive home four runs to give KU what seemed to be a commanding 5-0 lead after two.
The lead faded away in the bottom of the third inning. Wyatt Miles kicked off the inning with a solo shot to left field to make it 5-1. The Rams then loaded the bases for Idris Carter, who cleared the bases with a grand slam over the left field fence to tie the game at five. Dominic Proietto (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) responded strongly, striking out three straight Rams swinging to limit the damage and send it to the top of the fourth.
Similar to the bottom of the third, the Golden Beards quickly loaded the bases in the top of the fourth. Jimmy Kerley (Indian Trail, N.C./Sun Valley) then stepped up to the plate and matched Carter, rocketing a ball over the center field fence for a grand slam to make it a 9-5 game.
From there, Proietto shut the Rams down. The senior righty only allowed one hit in the following two-inning, keeping the lead at 9-5 heading into the bottom of the sixth. For the second straight game against the Rams, Moretski stepped onto the bump to close out the game. Shepherd was able to plate two more runs in the bottom of the seventh via a two-run home run, but it wasn't enough as KU held on for the 9-7 win.
Kerley led the KU offense in game one, going 2-for-4 with four RBI. Martini continued to perform at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Wolff was the other Golden Bear with a multi-hit game, as he went 2-for-3 at the dish. Along with the save, Moretski also had an RBI in the win.
On the bump, Proietto got the start and the win, going five innings and allowing five hits while recording a season-high eight strikeouts. Brayden Stottlemeyer took the loss for Shepherd.
Game 2: Kutztown 5, Shepherd 4
Game two followed a similar trend. The Golden Bears took a multi-run lead, lost it, and then responded in a big way to come away with the win.
Neither team plated any runs till the top of the third. Antonio Rossillo (Warrington, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) blasted back-to-back RBI doubles to make it 2-0 KU. A Jimmy Kerley (Indian Trail, N.C./Sun Valley) groundout put another KU runner across the dish as the score was 3-0. Shepherd responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the third to make it 3-1. An inning later, the Rams took the lead via a three-run homer, which made it 4-3.
The Golden Bears refused to go quietly and retook the lead in the top of the sixth. Joey Pettinelli (Broomall, Pa./Marple Newtown) tied the game with an RBI single before a wild pitch scored Michael Burns (Levittown, Pa./Harry S. Truman) to make it 5-4 KU.
Following that, the KU pitching staff locked it down again. Starter Zach Male (Royersford, Pa./Spring-Ford) allowed only one more hit before Dalton Geiger (Leesport, Pa./Schuylkill Valley) entered the game in the bottom of the eighth to close it out. Following a lead-off double in the eighth, Geiger and the Golden Bears kept the Rams off the board. In the bottom of the ninth, the Leesport, Pa. struck out the final two Shepherd batters to secure the 5-4 KU win.
Rossillo and Moretski both ended with two hits and an RBI each in the win. Martini extended his hitting streak to seven games, while Kerley and Pettinelli both had an RBI each. On the bump, Male got the win, going seven innings while allowing nine hits and striking out five. Geiger earned the save, while Allen Miller took the loss for Shepherd.
