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West Chester - Philadelphia Baseball Review
West Chester spent the entire spring building toward another trip to Cary.

Friday afternoon, the Golden Rams finally punched the ticket.

Behind a composed, veteran performance from Kyle Lazer and a late offensive avalanche that broke open a tense game, West Chester defeated Millersville, 9-2, to capture the Atlantic Regional championship and return to the Division II National Finals for the first time since 2022.

For much of the afternoon, this looked exactly like the kind of regional final that could turn on one mistake.

West Chester grabbed an early lead in the third inning and then spent the middle innings leaning heavily on Lazer, who delivered the kind of outing programs remember years later when postseason runs are discussed.

The senior right-hander did not overpower Millersville. He controlled the game.

Lazer worked 7 1/3 innings, allowing two runs while consistently getting ahead in counts and forcing weak contact. At a point in the season where adrenaline can easily speed pitchers up, Lazer instead slowed everything down.

That mattered against a dangerous Millersville lineup playing on its home field.

The Golden Rams broke through first in the third when Tanner Donati opened the inning with a single before eventually coming home on a bases-loaded walk by Landen Rozich. Drew Simpson followed moments later with a two-run single that pushed the lead to 3-0 and immediately changed the pressure dynamic inside the ballpark.

Millersville answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning and spent the next several frames threatening to break through again, but Lazer repeatedly neutralized traffic before innings could unravel.

That became the story of the game.

Every time the Marauders appeared ready to shift momentum, West Chester’s veteran right-hander found another pitch, another ground ball or another soft out.

Millersville finally trimmed the lead to 3-2 in the eighth inning, bringing the tying run closer and tightening the atmosphere considerably. But freshman Landen Rozich entered in relief and delivered perhaps the biggest outs of the afternoon, escaping the inning and preserving the lead heading into the ninth.

Then the offense detonated.

What had been a tense one-run game suddenly turned into a celebration.

West Chester erupted for six runs in the ninth inning, overwhelming Millersville’s bullpen with relentless pressure, hard contact and aggressive baserunning. Hunter Smith delivered the defining swing of the inning — a towering three-run home run that removed any lingering drama and sent the West Chester dugout into full eruption mode. Simpson added another RBI, while Caleb Strawhecker and Carter Rust contributed key hits as the inning spiraled away from the Marauders.

By the time Rozich closed out the ninth, the realization had fully settled in.

West Chester was going back to Cary.

The Golden Rams improved to 44-10 with the victory and captured the Atlantic Regional crown for the sixth time in program history. More importantly, they once again positioned themselves among the final teams standing in Division II baseball.

That does not happen accidentally in late May.

It happens because experienced teams understand how to win tense postseason games before eventually breaking them open.

Friday looked exactly like that kind of performance.

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Patrick Gordon, Executive Editor

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