No. 13 West Chester Staves Off Elimination With Morning Win

The following is a press release from the West Chester University Athletic Department.

West Chester University hammered four Slippery Rock pitchers for 15 runs on 16 hits in a 15-6 victory in an elimination game at the 2012 PSAC Baseball Tournament inside Pullman Park on Friday morning.
 
Thirteenth-ranked West Chester (35-10) moves on to play Shippensburg at 3:30 p.m. in the next round. The Raiders are still unbeaten in the tournament. If West Chester wins, they move on to Saturday while a loss will end the Golden Rams’ bid for the conference title.
 
Jack Provine led the way offensively with a 4-for-5 showing at the plate. He knocked in three runs and scored four runs himself. Joe Wendle went 3-for-5 with five RBI right behind Provine in the batting order. Mike Raimo was 2-for-4 with four runs scored on the day.
 
Fred Breidenbach (7-2) tossed 6.2 innings and picked up the win on the mound. He allowed two runs on six hits, walked one and struck out one.
 
West Chester got the bats going early, put Slippery Rock in a hole right away and never let The Rock climb out. The Rams scored three runs in the first on three hits. Slippery Rock plated one of its own during their first at bats to make it a 3-1 ballgame after one inning of play. However, West Chester responded with another three-spot on four hits in the second and opened up a 6-1 advantage.
 
Wendle, who hit a pair of doubles in the game, knocked in two runs in the second with a two-bagger. He then stole third, and Chris Pula brought him home with a run-scoring single.
 
Pula doubled in a run in the top of the first inning and later scored on a single by Jordan Wlodarczyk. Wendle had a RBI groundout prior to Pula’s at bat, which plated Raimo, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the contest.
 
Wendle produced another RBI groundout in the fourth, after Jack Provine singled in a run, as West Chester tacked on two more to its lead and stretched the advantage to 8-1. Josh Heyne hit a two-run single in the fifth as the lead moved to 10-1.
 
Slippery Rock picked up its second run of the ballgame in the sixth.
 
Provine hit a two-run double in the eighth, and Pula knocked in a run with West Chester’s third RBI groundout of the afternoon. That put the Rams on top, 13-2.
 
The Rock made their run in the bottom of the eighth inning when they scored four times to draw to within 13-6. Breidenbach was lifted with two outs in the sixth inning, and Slippery Rock got to left-handed reliever John Barr in the eighth.
 
Kyle Weary came on to get the Golden Rams out of a jam. He finished up on the hill.
 
West Chester answered that spurt with two more runs in the ninth on a bases loaded walk issued to Wendle and a sacrifice fly from Pula.