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Baseball Tyler Schueck, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

NCAA ATLANTIC REGIONAL: Buletza and Albaugh spark Kutztown past West Virginia State, 10-5

WEST LAWN, PA (May 15, 2010) – The Kutztown University baseball team kept its dream alive for a trip to the NCAA College World Series with a 10-5 win over West Virginia State on Saturday afternoon on Owls Field at Ted Palka Park. (Boxscore) (Tournament Central)

The Golden Bears (39-13) showed why they were the No. 1 seed in the regional tournament, pounding out 14 hits, two of which were home runs to eliminate the Yellow Jackets (32-16). James Quigley and Matt Albaugh hit the long ball and along with Corey Buletza each drove in three runs.

Albaugh broke open a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning with his two run shot over the wall in left on a 2-2 fastball.

 “They started to come back before my at bat,” said Albaugh. “They balked to put Kacelowicz on second and I was just trying to drive him in from there. I got a pitch that I could handle, I barreled up and it just went.”

Buletza added more breathing room for the Golden Bears with a two-run single through the box to build a 9-5 lead in eighth. Albaugh gave KU its final tally with an RBI triple down the leftfield line to score Mike Dugan, who led off the ninth with a single.

After struggling to score runs over the course of the first two games, the Golden Bears scored four runs before their defense even took the field. The four-run first inning was the Golden Bears' second straight four-run outburst. Kutztown scored four runs in the ninth inning to defeat Mansfield Friday afternoon.

In the opening frame, the Golden Bears got their first run off of three straight singles. Quigley then delivered a three run home run out of the park in a hurry to build the early lead.

“It was big to put up a bunch of runs in the first,” said Quigley. “It felt like we were behind in every inning of every game until the end. So it was big to get the four run lead today, even though we lost it, but it was still very important.”

Jonathan Grosse cruised through the first two innings on the mound before hitting a bump in the third. The fourth-seeded Yellow Jackets had several line drives find holes in the outfield and got three runs back to cut the deficit to one.

The game was even at four in the fourth inning after Dave Myers doubled down the right field line to score Bill Smith. Smith and designated hitter Ryne Holstine each had three hits for the Yellow Jackets, while Myers had a team-high two RBIs.

Grosse allowed just one more run and two hits over the next three innings to keep the Yellow Jackets at bay. He finished with seven plus innings, striking out three to earn the win.

“I just tried to go out there and go as many innings as I could,” said Grosse. “I knew that we would need to save the bullpen and rest guys if we wanted to go through the two games tomorrow.”

Jordan Garcia worked a hitless 1.1 inning before Mike Bucklin recorded the final two outs and secured Kutztown's trip to Championship Sunday.

Head coach Chris Blum remained confident after the opening round loss to California (PA). His team proved him right when he said that the Golden Bears were built to come back from the loss. With an arsenal of pitchers, KU will find themselves in need of two wins to punch their tickets to Cary, North Carolina for the World Series.

“We are telling the guys to relax and focus,” said Blum. “We know we have to play two tomorrow if we want to win it. We have swept before during the year and we have to keep going out having fun and swinging the bats.”

West Chester, at 2-0, will meet the Golden Bears on Sunday at 1 p.m. regardless of its outcome against California on Saturday evening. If West Chester wins, Cal will be eliminated, but if Cal wins it will head to the championship game and await the winner of Kutztown-West Chester contest.
--KU--

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