ABERDEEN, Md. – The Philadelphia University baseball was defeated by West Chester in the opening round of the Bill Giles Invitational Tournament, 4-1, Saturday afternoon at Ripken Stadium.

Philadelphia—who entered the game as the defending Invitational champion—is now 2-7 overall. West Chester improves to 3-1.

Philadelphia outhit West Chester 10-2, and got two hits each from senior left fielder Shane Yoshiyama (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou Scool), senior first baseman Jordan Force (East Greenville, Pa./Upper Perkiomen), sophomore third baseman Fernando Garza (Laredo, Texas/Alexander), and junior designated hitter Ken McCormick (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury).

The Golden Rams took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first without the benefit of a hit. After leading off the inning by getting hit by a pitch, Mike Raimo stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a groundout to third by Chris Pula.

Philadelphia got the run back in the fourth thanks to a RBI single to center field off the bat of Force to plate senior catcher TJ Burgmann (Philadelphia, Pa./La Salle College High School) from third. During the inning, Yoshiyama extended his hitting streak to eight games with a two-out single.

Pula put the Golden Rams back in front in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run home run to left field to make it a 3-1 contest. Justin Roman tacked on West Chester's fourth run in the sixth with a one-out triple to left center that brought Pula home from first base.

West Chester's Fred Breidenbach earned the win (1-0) as he allowed one run on seven hits and fanned six in six innings of work. Ron Scull picked up his first save of the year by turning in three scoreless innings.

Philadelphia's pitching staff recorded a season-high 13 strikeouts.

Junior David Lerro (Secane, Pa./Upper Darby) was the hard-luck losing pitcher (0-2). He struck out a career-high eight batters, while giving up three runs on one hit.

Junior Stephen Dickerson (Columbus, Ohio/Danbury) posted two strikeouts in two innings, and sophomore Abraham Almonte (Danbury, Conn./Danbury) had three strikeouts in the final two innings.

Philadelphia's scheduled contest against East Stroudsburg on Sunday at Harford Community College has been cancelled. The Rams will return to action with a four-game weekend series against visiting Le Moyne starting on Saturday, March 8 at noon.