Golden Rams Take Giles Championship with Win over Devils

The nationally ranked West Chester University baseball team banged out 11 hits as they defeated the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia baseball team 8-2 in Tuesday's Bill Giles Invitational Championship game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

The game was the Devils third trip to the championship game since the tournament started in 2001. Sciences is now 0-3 in Bill Giles Championship games, losing to West chester in 2004, 2008 and this year.

Starter Luke Peyton (Haddonfield HS/Haddonfield, N.J.) struck out the side in the opening inning and the Devils opened the game with Kyle Davis (Garnet Valley HS/Garnet Valley, Pa.) blasting a long double right in front of the 401 sign in center field. Davis unfortunately was left at second as West Chester Starter Dave Steig retired the next three Sciences batters. Davis' double is was team leading ninth, the eighth best mark in program history and the most ever by a freshman in the program.

West Chester broke open a scoreless tie with two outs in the top of the third inning when Nick Spisak reached on an error by USP's first baseman when the Devils' third baseman threw over and the ball went through the webbing of the first baseman's glove and died in the grass in foul territory. Kevin McGrath, who was running from first on the grounder, came all the way around to score. Joe Wendle and Kyle Orensky followed with back-to-back doubles as West Chester took a 3-0 lead on three unearned runs. West Chester made it 5-0 on McGrath's two-run blast in the firth and added another in the sixth on a RBI single from Brandon Wolfe that scored Charlie Kelly.

Pete LaRocco delivered a one-out single and came around to score on Lou Tomasetti's double in the bottom of the sixth inning for the Devils first run of the game. After Dennis Murphy walked, Mark forbes singled to score Tomasetti and make the score 6-2.

Kelly homered off the facade in left field in the eighth inning to make the score 7-2. The Golden Rams added another run in the inning to complete the scoring. Three West chester pitchers retired the Devils in order in the final three innings of play to give West Chester their seventh Bill Giles Championship and third third consecutive title.

Peyton (0-3) took the loss for the Devils (4-30) despite pitching very effectively. He allowed just two earned runs on five hits, walking two and striking out five in four + innings of work. Steig picked up the win for West Chester. Davis extended his hitting streak to four games with a double and an infield single. His two hits give him 46 for the season, a record for a Sciences freshman and the fourth best single season total in school history.