{"id":298431,"date":"2026-06-06T15:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298431\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:22:21","slug":"west-chester-beats-tampa-force-decisive-game-3-in-d-ii-championship-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/298431\/","title":{"rendered":"West Chester beats Tampa, force decisive Game 3 in D-II championship series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n

CARY, N.C. \u2014 Grit and resilience has been the West Chester<\/a> baseball team\u2019s trademark all season, and it was on full display Friday in Game 2 of the Division II championship series.<\/p>\n

Because of it, the Golden Rams have earned a chance to play for a national title.<\/p>\n

Rebounding from a Game 1 loss to two-time defending champion Tampa the previous night<\/a> and facing an early deficit in a must-win situation, coach Mike LaRosa\u2019s top-seeded team stormed back to take a 12-4 victory at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: As West Chester chases a Division II baseball title, it leans on \u2018heart and soul,\u2019 Timmy Hoge<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior right-hander Kyle Lazer pitched a complete game in his final career start, Harry Middlebrooks continued his tear with a home run, and right fielder Christian Michak, back in the lineup after missing the last two games, had three hits. West Chester scored all but one of its runs with two outs to set up a winner-take-all deciding Game 3 on Saturday (3 p.m., ncaa.com).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not done yet,\u201d said Lazer, who struck out 11 and allowed one earned run in his 136-pitch masterpiece. \u201cWe worked too hard during the early spring, playing games in 28-30 degrees. The least I could do is go out and give everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lazer wasn\u2019t the only Ram who wasn\u2019t ready for the season to end on Friday. The offense behind him, described by LaRosa as \u201cdynamic,\u201d pieced together a relentless attack that chipped away at Tampa starter B.J. Bailey in the early innings, then kept piling on runs late to keep the Spartans (50-9) from mounting a comeback.<\/p>\n

Eight of the nine hitters in the Golden Rams\u2019 batting order contributed at least one hit and seven of the nine drove in at least one run.<\/p>\n

And yet the night got off to an ominous start when West Chester (48-11) left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings. It appeared the missed opportunities might come back to haunt them when Jake Books launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the third to give Tampa a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n

But as it has all season, and especially in this tournament, West Chester quickly answered. A two-run single by ninth hitter Landen Rozich in the fifth gave the Golden Rams a 4-3 lead. Then, after the Spartans tied the score at 4 in the bottom of the inning, Middlebooks delivered his first home run of the season to get his team off and running again.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Kyle Lazer aims to finish what he started with West Chester baseball in Division II championship<\/a><\/p>\n

A junior third baseman who lost his starting job after hitting just .212, Middlebrooks got a second chance in this tournament because of a knee injury to his replacement, Drew Simpson. In his five games in Cary, Middlebrooks is hitting .368 (7-for-19). <\/p>\n

He\u2019s been so effective that LaRosa moved him from the eighth spot in the lineup to No. 3. And Tampa had so much respect for him that it intentionally walked him with a base open in the top of the ninth to get to cleanup man Austin Stalker, who delivered his 12th homer of the year to cap the scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Simp going down I figured I would have to step up,\u201d Middlebrooks said. \u201cI was waiting for that second shot after not doing too well early on. But being on this team is easy, having guys pulling for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

By pounding out 12 hits and scoring 10 runs over the final five innings, the Rams made things easy for Lazer, who was determined to finish the game and save his team\u2019s bullpen for Saturday\u2019s deciding game. <\/p>\n

Not that there was any doubt in his coach\u2019s mind that he\u2019d come up big with the season on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle Lazer, that\u2019s the story tonight,\u201d LaRosa said. \u201cThis guy just competes. Our coaches and I were going through pitching scenarios last night and I said it doesn\u2019t matter because he\u2019s going nine innings. Sure enough, here we are. Pitch count didn\u2019t matter tonight. It\u2019s the last start of his career, and we knew he was absolutely going to empty the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min CARY, N.C. \u2014 Grit and resilience has been the West Chester baseball team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136,125548],"class_list":["post-298431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-west-chester-tampa-division-ii-championship-score-game-2-kyle-lazer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}