The West Chester University baseball team has reached the summit of the NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament for the third time in program history. The Golden Rams, under the direction of head coach Mike LaRosa, will face off against the University of Tampa Spartans in a best-of-three championship series beginning Thursday.
West Chester (47-10) is riding the wave of their winningest season in program history. With only 10 losses on the season, West Chester’s most recent loss came on May 9 at the hands of fellow Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) school Millersville in the PSAC Championship game. An uncharacteristically low-scoring affair, Millersville kept West Chester to a single run in a 2-1 decision, shunting West Chester’s attempt to win back-to-back conference titles.
Driving down to Cary, N.C., for the National Championship last week, the Golden Rams knew that they had the inside track. Their dominant performance throughout the tournament thus far has earned them the No. 1 seed.
Friday, West Chester went to work, quickly defeating the University of Indianapolis 12-3 to stay in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament. After a rest day on Saturday, West Chester downed the University of Texas at Tyler 8-2.
With a team ERA of 3.96 and an average runs per game of 8.46, the Golden Rams’ strategy is simple: score early and often and trust your deep pitching staff to get the job done. That offense is led by top run producer Caleb Strawhecker, a sophomore catcher from West Grove, Pa. Strawhecker’s .357 average, 1.077 OPS, and 64 runs scored lead the team as he bats out of the two-hole.
Typically batting Strawhecker in is senior first baseman Austin Stalker of Wycombe, Pa. Stalker leads the Golden Rams with 30 extra-base hits (11 home runs) and 60 RBI on the year. Completing the Golden Rams’ dynamic top of the lineup is the lead-off man, center fielder Carter Rust, a senior out of Liberty Township, Ohio. Rust owns the second highest average in the lineup with a .348 mark with 32 stolen bases, putting a runner in scoring position early and often for the Rams.
"I loved my experience here as a player and as a student," LaRosa said at the beginning of the 2021 season. "My experience here is what got me into college coaching because it had such a positive impact on my life. It's always been a goal of mine to come back here one day and be a part of the program again. To actually have the opportunity now is very surreal.”
To get there, LaRosa will have to go through one of the defining Division II baseball coaches of this generation: Tampa’s Joe Urso. Out of Tampa’s 10 National Championship titles, Urso has rings for eight of them. One as a player and seven as head coach. Tampa’s skipper since 2001, Urso has created the winningest NCAA program of this millennia.
With associate head coach Sam Militello at his side every step of the way, Urso has led Tampa to many incredible feats, such as their victory over the Netherlands national team or their victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in 2015. Ironically, less than two weeks later, Tampa lost to West Chester 7-6, the last time the two teams met. Tampa went on to win the National Championship later that season.
In essence, Urso’s Spartans are the New York Yankees (or perhaps the modern-day Los Angeles Dodgers) of Division II baseball. A consistent, perennial threat for a national championship. In this case, the Spartans are defending back-to-back national championships, having defeated Angelo State in 2024 and Central Missouri in 2025.
In a best-of-three series, West Chester and Tampa will face off at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday at the USA National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. Game two will be on Friday, June 5, at 6:00 p.m., with Game three (if necessary) taking place on Saturday, June 6, at 3:00 p.m.
All games are available for viewing on NCAA.com.
