The road back to Cary begins again for West Chester.
And this time, the Golden Rams believe they have the roster — and the scars — to make another serious run.
After spending much of the spring looking like one of the most complete teams in Division II baseball, West Chester enters the NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournament this weekend as the No. 1 seed, hosting for the fourth time in the last five seasons after finishing 39-10 and advancing to the PSAC Championship game.
The Golden Rams will open tournament play Thursday afternoon at Serpico Stadium against the loser of Thursday morning’s opening-round game between East Stroudsburg Warriors and Bloomsburg Huskies.
For a program with national championship banners hanging from 2012 and 2017, the expectations around West Chester are never modest. But this group arrives carrying something different — a blend of veteran pitching, offensive depth and unfinished business.
Last season ended abruptly with back-to-back NCAA Tournament losses, including a season-ending defeat against East Stroudsburg. The Golden Rams have not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2023.
Now they return with perhaps the most experienced ace in Division II baseball.
Senior right-hander Julian Costa enters the postseason at 10-2 with a 2.66 ERA after becoming the program’s first 10-game winner since 2012. Earlier this spring, Costa also became the active Division II career leader in victories while continuing to build on an already historic career at West Chester.
Costa has been the stabilizing force atop a pitching staff that has quietly become one of the deepest in the region.
Kyle Lazer gives West Chester another experienced postseason arm after posting a 3.35 ERA with 50 strikeouts in 53.2 innings, while Luke Raho emerged as a major bullpen weapon during the PSAC Tournament, recording a nine-out save against Indiana (Pa.) before returning the following day in the conference championship game.
Offensively, the Golden Rams do not overwhelm opponents with one star.
They keep coming.
Hunter Smith leads the club with a .368 average and a team-best 1.118 OPS, while Caleb Strawhecker and Austin Stalker have combined for 18 home runs and 102 RBIs. Patrick Gozdan, Christian Michak, Drew Simpson and Carter Rust have all helped create one of the deepest lineups in the Atlantic Region.
And perhaps no player symbolizes West Chester’s late-season surge more than Landen Rozich.
The two-way infielder has heated up offensively entering the postseason while also providing valuable innings out of the bullpen, giving the Golden Rams another versatile piece entering a tournament where pitching depth often decides everything.
The challenge, however, will not be simple.
East Stroudsburg remains dangerous despite West Chester taking three of four meetings during the regular season. The Warriors return much of the core that captured the Atlantic Regional title a year ago and are led by right-hander Ryan Dewees, who owns a 2.70 ERA with 82 strikeouts.
Bloomsburg, meanwhile, enters the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021 behind PSAC East Player of the Year Grant Russo, who is hitting .429 with 36 stolen bases.
Still, the path runs through West Chester.
The Golden Rams went 7-1 combined against East Stroudsburg and Bloomsburg during the regular season and enter the regional as the highest-ranked Atlantic Region team in the latest ABCA national poll.
Now comes the difficult part.
The postseason is no longer about résumés, rankings or regular-season dominance.
It is about surviving long enough to play for another week.
And for a West Chester program that measures seasons against national championship standards, this weekend feels less like a beginning and more like a test of whether this group is ready to return to that level once again.
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