Everybody was running on fumes by game two, but our guys are just super resilient. “I was exhausted and all I did was run back and forth from the third base coaching box to the dugout. “The mental fortitude to come back and get two today, in this heat, especially after the thumping we took (Friday), is impressive. “They are such a tough group of guys,” LaRosa said of his team afterwards. With no wiggle room, WCU eked out a 5-4 triumph in the opener, and then staged a late comeback to send the nightcap into extra innings before winning it 9-6 in 11. ![]() Our focus was to just win an inning, and I felt our guys bought into that.” ![]() “It was really daunting, so we just told our guys to break it down to one inning at a time. “Seton Hill is really good and they had some rested pitchers, and we were thinned out on our staff,” LaRosa explained. It’s worth noting that the day before, the Griffins trounced the Rams 18-7. West Chester (32-12 overall) needed it all to get past an excellent Seton Hill squad that needed to only win once on Saturday in the double elimination tourney at Serpico Stadium. There is a strong culture here - an expectation of winning that runs very deep.” “Especially in the most decent decade and having won two national championships. “And a lot of that is the groundwork that’s been laid here in the program over decades. “There is a belief in self – a kind of ‘we’ve done this before, we can do it again’ attitude,” said second-year head coach Mike LaRosa. And after the Rams pulled off a notable feat by winning two one-run games in blistering heat last Saturday against Seton Hill to capture the regional crown, they are now just two wins away from another trip to Cary, N.C., and the sport’s elite eight tournament. The reason is simple: WCU’s captured the national championship in each of its last two trips to the world series in 2012 and again in 2017. WEST GOSHEN > With West Chester’s impeccable track record in the College Baseball World Series, the rest of the nation’s elite Division II programs should be rooting for East Stroudsburg - and not the host Golden Rams - in the upcoming NCAA Atlantic Super Regional.
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