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QUAKERTOWN, Pa.- Following a dominant 13-1 victory over Seton Hill, which allowed the West Chester University softball team (31-20) to open the PSAC Tournament with a victory for the 11th time in its last 13 appearances, the Golden Rams shift their collective attention to a familiar foe in East Stroudsburg on Thursday at 10 a.m. West Chester will face the PSAC East Regular-Season Champion Warriors for the fifth time this year after playing to a record of 1-3 earlier this season.

Fan Information

Ticket sales are online only and will be cashless throughout the 2024 PSAC Softball Tournament. Day passes for the first two days of the Championships (Wednesday/Thursday) will cost $15, while day passes for Friday and Saturday will cost $10. Children 12 and under and students from PSAC member institutions with current, valid IDs will be admitted free of charge. Fans must purchase their tickets online via this link.

The Bracket

West Chester and East Stroudsburg will open up day two at the PSAC Championships on Thursday at 10 a.m. as the Golden Rams and Warriors resume their rivalry on field two at Veterans Park. On the other side of the Veteran's Park pavilion, fans will be treated to another all-PSAC East clash as Shippensburg will square off against PSAC East rival Kutztown. With a victory on Thursday morning, West Chester receives the reward of extra rest entering Friday as the Golden Rams would advance to the Semifinals on Friday at 10 a.m. On the flip side, should West Chester fall to the top-seeded Warriors on Thursday morning, the Golden Rams will have a break in the middle of the afternoon but will return to the field at 3 p.m. to play in an elimination game against another one-loss team yet to be determined.

It bears noting that West Chester has shown itself to be comfortable in this game. The Golden Rams found themselves in the 3 p.m. game on Thursday at the PSAC Tournament in both 2018 and 2019, emerging victorious each time with 4-0 and 14-6 victories over Shippensburg each year.

Series Information

No strangers to one another, West Chester and East Stroudsburg will meet for the fifth time in 2024 and the 170th time overall on Thursday morning, with the Warriors holding a slim 88-81 lead in the all-time series vs the Purple and Gold. 

Despite 169 meetings between the two foes, West Chester and East Stroudsburg have never met in the PSAC Tournament and have only faced each other in postseason play five times, with WCU holding a 3-2 lead all-time. The two sides met three times in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Regional Tournament in 1977, a Tournament West Chester won, thanks in part to a pair of wins over ESU. The two sides also met in the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Atlantic Regional Tournaments, with West Chester winning the 2021 meeting while East Stroudsburg advanced in 2022.

How They Got Here

West Chester advances to Thursday after a dominant victory on Wednesday afternoon over Seton Hill, which saw the Golden Rams roll to a 12-1 victory over the Griffins. West Chester jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after the first and never wavered as the Purple and Gold clubbed five home runs, including a pair from Grace Aguilar (Frederica, Del./Lake Forest), who continues to lead the team in long balls with eight. Madison Melvin (Tabernacle, N.J./Seneca) also had a good day at the plate, seeing her average climb to .408 on the year with a 2-for-3 day. Mairead Hopkins (West Chester, Pa./Rustin) and Paige Marabell (Tunkhannock, Pa./Tunkhannock) also clubbed home runs, remaining tied for second on the team in long balls with six each on the year. In the circle, Danielle Ciliberto (Ambler, Pa./Wissahickon) was masterful as she improved to 18-8 on the year after quieting the top offense in the league entering Quakertown. Ciliberto allowed just one run on seven hits and one hit-by-pitch while striking out four to help the Golden Rams continue their history of success in Quakertown.

East Stroudsburg found itself in a good one on Wednesday at the PSAC Championships as it took a three-run fifth inning for the Warriors to survive an upset-minded Bloomsburg team. East Stroudsburg scored first on an RBI single in the home first but found itself down three just a half inning later and, despite getting a run back in the third, trailed heading into the fifth. Trailing 4-2 in the fifth, Delaney Ridgell cut the deficit to one with an RBI double before Denva Shaw-Tait came through with the biggest hit of the afternoon, homering to center field to make the score 5-4 in favor of the top-seeded Warriors. Paige Zigmund worked the first five innings and earned a victory in the circle, improving to 19-7 on the year after allowing four runs on six hits and a pair of walks before exiting for Sarah Davenport. Davenport, the PSAC East Rookie and Pitcher of the Year, showed the league why she earned this honor as she picked up her eighth save of the year in impressive fashion, allowing just one hit while striking out a pair to secure the 5-4 victory.

Scouting ESU

East Stroudsburg enters day two at the PSAC Tournament with a record of 42-13 on the year, currently ranked as the top team in the Atlantic Region after winning the PSAC East regular season title a week ago. The Warriors boast the top pitching staff in the PSAC East as one of two teams with a sub-3.00 ERA on the year, as the team has posted an ERA of 2.01 in 366.1 innings of work (West Chester is the lone other team with a 2.92 ERA in 350.1) led by the efforts of Paige Zigmund and Sarah Davenport.

Davenport, who is nearing the end of her rookie season, leads the league in a host of categories, including ERA (0.99), batting average against (.178), strikeouts (275), runs allowed (23), wins (22), and saves (8). Zigmund, a senior, has been difficult to hit this year as well, posting a record of 19-7 on the year with a 2.94 ERA in 159.1 innings of work, striking out 174 while yielding just 156 hits and 44 walks. Of the two, Davenport has had more success against West Chester this year, going a perfect 2-0 in the circle with a 0.69 ERA and a .140 batting-average against while striking out 22 compared to Zigmund, who is 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA and a .314 batting-average against when facing the Golden Rams this season.

Offensively, ESU has eight players who bat north of .300 on the year entering play on Thursday morning, led by Delaney Ridgell, who is batting .356 on the year with 57 hits, including 13 extra-base hits, while also driving in 24 runs and scoring 22 more. Ridgell has also done her share of damage against the Golden Rams, batting .364 against West Chester and pitching with four hits in 11 at-bats against the Golden Rams so far this season. Katie Master leads the team in home runs with nine on the year and, in doing so, is also the team lead in extra-base hits with 20 total (eight doubles, three triples, nine home runs) while batting .322 with a 1.075 OPS as the lone Warrior starter with an OPS north of 1.000. While she did hit one of her nine home runs on the year against WCU, West Chester has kept the Warriors outfielder in check, holding her to just three hits on the year. Abigail Weirich ranks fourth on the team in batting average, trailing Ridgell, Taylor Lipkins (.350), and Denva Shaw-Tait (.345), but leads the team in both RBI (37) and runs scored (42) after appearing and starting in 52 of 55 games in her junior season.