West Chester Falls To No. 21 Winston-Salem State, 9-4, In Atlantic Regional

Box Score

ERIE, Pa. – Bill Ford (Parkside, Pa./Malvern Prep) and Dylan Tice (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) each homered, but No. 21 Winston-Salem State homered four times itself en route to a 9-4 victory over West Chester University in an NCAA Atlantic Region second round contest at Jerry Uht Park Friday night.
 
West Chester (27-14) drops into the loser's bracket and will face Mercyhurst Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m. in an elimination game. Winston-Salem State (42-13) is the lone remaining unbeaten team in the regional.
 
Andrew Gernert (Lenhartsville, Pa./Kutztown) (4-4) suffered the loss on the mound for West Chester. He started the game and lasted 5.1 innings, allowing seven runs on six hits while walking two and striking out two. Mike Cipolla (Newark, Del./Charter School of Wilmington) finished out the game and surrendered two runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out one.
 
Freshman left-hander Tyler Scearce (5-0) remained unbeaten on the year for Winston-Salem State. He pitched 6.2 innings giving up two runs, one of them earned on four hits. Eric Corlett and Devin McLemore each pitched an inning for the Rams as well.
 
The loss ended a personal nine-game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament for both West Chester University and head coach Jad Prachniak. The four-year mentor of the Golden Rams suffered his first loss as head coach in the NCAA Tournament as a result of Friday's 9-4 setback.
 
Tice finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.