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Double Dip

Winston-Salem Knocks Off Mercyhurst To Advance

Winston-Salem State second baseman Ivan Acuna tags out Mercyhurst’s Jimmy Latona on a stolen-base attempt during the first inning of Sunday evening’s game. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

The Winston-Salem State Rams entered the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional as the No. 7 seed, and Coach Kevin Ritsche even suggested over the weekend that they were “not even close to being the most talented team.”

Well, folks, they’re still alive, and they’ll have an opportunity to continue their improbable run today when they meet No. 2 West Chester, beginning at noon at Diethrick Park, in the final day of the double-elimination tournament.

Winston-Salem State (39-18) will have to beat the Golden Rams (39-11) twice. West Chester, after all, is coming out of the winners’ bracket and defeated the North Carolina school on Thursday, but with the way the Rams are playing, anything is possible.

Their latest victim was No. 1 Mercyhurst (38-8).

Taking advantage of the Lakers’ mistakes — they were guilty of four errors — the Rams got off to an early lead, were buoyed by an outstanding, rally-killing catch by — who else? — Randy Norris and rode the pitching of starter Seth Reeves and reliever Corbin Easter to down the Lakers, 6-1, in a rain-delayed losers’ bracket final.

In six innings, Reeves (10-3) gave up two hits, struck out eight, walked five and hit a batter.

He was relieved in the seventh by Easter, who didn’t allow a hit in three scoreless innings, and was credited with the save, his second of the season.

Winston-Salem State scored all the runs it would need in the top of the third, taking advantage of two Mercyhurst errors and a run-scoring double by Landon Steiner off the base of the center field wall. That was enough for Reeves and Easter.

The Lakers did have a rally thwarted in the fifth when, with two outs, Reeves walked Jimmy Latona and Chris Gonzalez. Cameron Balego followed by driving a ball deep to center field, but Norris made a spectacular catch against the wall to end the threat.

Vincenzo Lucente (5-2) took the loss for the Lakers, who entered the game having scored 401 runs on the season. But the only run they managed yesterday was courtesy of Latona’s solo homer to lead off the third inning. Lucente worked seven innings, gave up seven hits, struck out six, walked four and hit a batter.

The Rams tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth off reliever Andrew Ciolli when Matt Mauldin led off by reaching on a two-base throwing error by shortstop Balego and scored on Norris’ single. Norris moved to second on the throwing error by left fielder Latona, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by John Garcia and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Ford. For good measure, Winston-Salem State added a final run in the top of the ninth on Mauldin’s single that plated Steiner, who finished the game with three hits.

When the game, which started at 3 p.m. and was delayed four hours because of rain, ended at 10:22 p.m. with an Easter strikeout, the Rams’ reserves stormed out of the dugout to celebrate with their teammates .

And to think the young men from Winston-Salem State started the season with eight losses in their first nine games.

Ritsche might have to amend his early tournament assessment of his squad headed into today’s meeting/meetings with West Chester.

The Rams can play, indeed.

NOTES: In addition to Steiner’s three hits, Norris and Abreu added two apiece for Winston-Salem. … Dan Elliott had Mercyhurst’s other hit, a two-out single in the sixth inning. … The Rams lost to West Chester, 5-4, on Thursday, the first day of the regional. … The Atlantic Regional champion advances to the NCAA Championship in Grand Prairie, Texas.

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