Seton Hill entered Friday's second day of action in the Atlantic Regional 1 at West Chester looking to stay hot at the plate after posting a season-high in hits the day before in a win over Slippery Rock.

It would be an understatement to say the Griffins stayed hot, as they set a season-high in runs and hits with 21 in taking down #1 seed West Chester 18-7 in the opening game of a three-game series to determine who will advance to the Super Regionals next week. The teams were due to play the second game of the series Friday, but due to a lightening /weather delay that lasted more than two hours, the second game was postponed until Saturday at 11 am and an If necessary game will be played after that if the Rams win Saturday's first game.

Just as they had to in the opening game win over Slippery Rock. Seton Hill faced an early deficit when the Rams took a 1-0 lead in the second inning off a home run. The SHU response was swift and strong when a pair of home runs accounted for all seven runs the Griffins posted in the bottom of the second. The first blast was hit by Omar Ward, a grand slam to left field, and later in the frame, Max Mandler cranked a three-run shot out to left as well and it was a 7-1 SHU lead.

The lead grew the next inning when Ward came to the plate again with two runners on. He hammered a three-run jack off a 3-0 pitch down the left-field line to extend the Seton Hill lead to 10-1.

The Rams didn't go away easily, as they tried to get back in the game with four runs in the fourth to make it 10-5, but the Griffins had another answer. RBI singles by Neal McDermott, Isaiah DiAndreth and Ward pushed the lead back out to 13-5. The teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning, with Seton Hill's coming off an RBI single by Vincenzo Rauso.

The Griffins added four more to their total in the seventh to truly put the game out of reach. Braden Durham bashed a solo homer, the team's fourth of the game, to start the scoring. McDermott doubled in a run after that, which was followed by a DiAndreth RBI single and Ward collected his ninth RBI of the day with a base-loaded walk. West Chester managed the game's final run with one in the 8th before the rain delay and the teams quickly finished the game after returning from the lengthy stoppage.

All nine starters had at least one hit for the second consecutive day for Seton Hill and the 21 hits is their most in a game since posting 23 against West Liberty on April 3, 2019. While there were many stars in the game for SHU, two really stood, out including Ward, who reached base all five times with his two homers, single and two walks while driving in nine. Almost as incredible of a performance was turned in DiAndreth, who was 5-for-5, the first five-hit game by.a Griffin since Tom McCarthy in 2017, with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Other big performances were turned in by Mandler, who had three hits, three RBIs and two runs scored, and McDermott, who posted three hits, knocked in two and scored three times.

Taking the start on the hill and earning the win was Caiden Wood. He threw 5 1/3 innings and posted seven Ks while allowing five earned runs. Blake Barker came on in the sixth to escape a jam and would throw 2 2/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits, and Payton Faris pitched a perfect ninth inning to put the Griffins one win away from advancing to the Super Regionals next week.