WASHINGTON, Pa. --
Riley Groves and
Jared Baird both tossed complete-game shutouts as W&J clinched a Presidents' Athletic Conference tournament berth with a doubleheader sweep of Waynesburg by 1-0 and 7-0 scores at Ross Memorial Park.
With the wins, the Washington & Jefferson baseball team will be making its seventh-consecutive appearance in the conference tournament after improving to 13-8 in league play with three games remaining and 21-11 overall. Waynesburg, also in the conference tournament, falls to 17-15-1 on the year and 15-6 in league contests.
Groves picked up his third shutout of the season, and fourth he's been a part of, with a complete-game showing in the opener. The sophomore surrendered just four hits and struck out seven and did not allow a runner to reach second base in the victory, improving to a PAC-best 7-1 in the process, and needing just 69 pitches to seal the deal.
His mound opponent, Waynesburg's Brian Resnik (7-2) was nearly as good, giving up just four hits and one run while striking out four and walking one.
W&J pushed the game's only run across in the bottom of the third inning when
Michael Ruffing led off with a double down the left field line and advanced on a ground out to second base by
Nick Morton. Ruffing then scored on an RBI ground out by
Cory Bauer with one out.
Nick Vento led W&J with two doubles in finishing 2-for-3. With Ruffing's double, three of W&J's four hits were two-baggers, as
Gannon Rooney supplied the lone single.
Baird threw 104 pitches in the nightcap to shutdown the Yellow Jackets, striking out eight and walking one in the complete game. He gave up eight hits and improved to 3-3 on the year.
The Presidents did all of their damage in two innings, plating three in the second and four in the fifth.
In the second,
Kyle Smith doubled to lead off and
Jake Gordon was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Smith came in to score on a Ruffing sacrifice fly. The next batter,
Dan Trettel, was hit by a pitch, and
Ryan Sciullo delivered an RBI single that advanced Trettel to third. The final run of the inning came when Sciullo was able to get in a rundown between first and second that lasted long enough to allow Trettel to score from third, 3-0.
Sciullo reached on an error in the fifth to open the inning and went to third on a double down the right field line by Rooney. With the infield drawn in,
Anthony Paladino bounced a single through the right side to plate Sciullo, which Vento followed up with a towering homer to left field, his team-leading third of the season, 7-0.
Rooney and Paladino both collected two hits in the finale, while Vento and Smith each had extra-base knocks.
W&J will travel to La Roche for a nonconference doubleheader on Sunday, April 26. Game one's first pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
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