It’s win or go home for West Chester in the NCAA Division II baseball playoffs

CARY, N.C. — The West Chester University baseball team claimed national championships in its two most recent trips to the Division II College World Series, going a perfect 4-0 each time.

If the Golden Rams are going to bring home the trophy again this year, they’ll have to do it through the loser’s bracket.

The Atlantic Regional champions got off to a balky start in the double-elimination tournament on Sunday, mustering only five hits in a 3-1 loss to top-seeded North Greenville at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

“We really couldn’t get much going offensively and couldn’t get any momentum going,” West Chester coach Mike LaRosa said. “I thought we played good, too. We kind of traded punches a little bit. They just got a few more timely hits than we did.”

The Rams (34-15) will have an opportunity to rebound and advance on Tuesday against Southern New Hampshire, which lost a 7-4 decision to Angelo State in its opening-round matchup.

The win-or-go-home situation is a familiar one for West Chester. It has already played four elimination games during its current postseason run, rising to the occasion to beat Seton Hill twice in its regional and East Stroudsburg in the super regional to earn its trip to Cary.

Because of that experience and the day off in between games, LaRosa remains as confident as ever in his team’s ability to extend its stay in North Carolina.

“It’s baseball,” he said. “It’s why it’s double elimination in this thing, because you’re maybe going to run into a pitcher that’s kind of a buzz saw and has your number for a night. We feel good about bouncing back, having an off day and a light practice [Monday], hit the reset button, and hopefully come out, get a little more things going early on and take that pressure off.”

Sunday’s buzz saw was North Greenville starter Reece Fields.

» READ MORE: No. 13 West Chester Drops Opener at National Championships to No. 1 North Greenville, 3-1

The sophomore right-hander pitched seven strong innings, striking out six and walking only one while keeping the Rams’ hitters off balance with a steady diet of cutters. The only run WCU was able to muster against him came in the sixth on a check-swing dribbler down the first-base line by cleanup hitter Mike Ferrara.

Fields bobbled the ball and couldn’t recover, allowing Justin Horn — who had singled to lead off the inning — to score from second. That cut the North Greenville lead to 2-1, but the Rams left the tying runs at second and third and the Crusaders (51-10) answered right back to regain their two-run lead.

Ferrara, leadoff man Zack Wright, Keith Flaherty, and J.R. Gifford had the other hits for the Rams.

“Today, the zone was pretty big and they were throwing a lot of strikes,” Ferrara said. “We caught a few barrels, but that was about it.”

West Chester starter Braeden Fausnaught did what he could to keep his team in contention, giving up only six hits over six innings of work.

It was a performance that first baseman Ferrara said would have been good enough to win had he and his teammates provided their usual run support. The Rams are hitting .292 as a team and averaged 8.2 runs per game this season.

“Our offense will wash this,” Ferrara said. “Going into Tuesday, hopefully we can get things rolling. Once our offense starts going, it doesn’t stop.”