By: Anthony Socrates, Sports Information Intern
 
WASHINGTON, Pa.—The Washington & Jefferson baseball team swept both games of its doubleheader against Geneva Friday, featuring a score of 9-5 in the first game and 11-1 in the second.
 
The Presidents, serving as the visiting team for both games, kicked off the twinbill by jumping on the Golden Tornadoes in the first inning. Derek Helbing was hit by a pitch in the second at bat and proceeded to steal second base. Nick Vento hit a one-out double to advance Helbing to third, setting up for Frank Fortunato to ground out, which scored Helbing and kept Vento at second. Directly following Fortunato's RBI, Josh Crummer doubled to center, plating Vento and bringing the score to 2-0 to close out the first inning.
 
The Golden Tornadoes answered by scoring two runs of their own after a four-hit bottom of the first, tying the game, 2-2.
 
A walk in the top of the third put W&J's Adam LaRue on first and he moved to second on a failed pickoff attempt. In the next at bat, Helbing grounded out to the second baseman bringing LaRue in to score, and giving the Presidents a 3-2 lead.
 
After three innings of good pitching and defense, Ryan Sciullo hit a two-out single to right and advanced to second following a Jake Gordon single up the middle. Pinch-hitter Kevin Begley singled down the left-field line, scoring Sciullo and moving Gordon to third thanks to an error by the left fielder, to make it a 4-2 game. Mullen Socha pinch ran for Begley and shortly after, Gordon would advance home on a passed ball to increase W&J's score to 5-2. Michael Ruffing was hit by a pitch and back-to-back walks to LaRue and Helbing plated Socha to close the frame with the Red & Black ahead, 6-2.
 
The Presidents added on with three more runs in the top of the seventh to take a 9-2 lead into the last half inning. Fortunato hit his second career home run to lead off the top part, 7-2. Sciullo reached first on a fielder's choice, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. The next batter, Gordon, batted in Sciullo with a base hit to left adding another W&J run.  Cole Reese pinch ran for Gordon and was later brought home by a LaRue single to left field concluding the Presidents scoring.
 
Geneva made a late push, scoring three runs in the bottom half of the seventh inning, but was unable to make a comeback in the 9-5 final score.
 
Riley Groves was the contest's winning pitcher, improving his record to 2-2 after 5.0 innings of work that saw him yield just two runs, while Geneva's Zach Ackerman drops to 2-2 on the year.
 
In the second game of the doubleheader, W&J's Joe Vita pitched 6.0 innings, allowing one run in the sixth inning and only three hits, as he recorded the win to move the junior to 2-1 this season
 
LaRue set the Presidents up for an early start after he singled up the middle and stole both second and third. Later in the frame, Nick Vento plated LaRue with a single to right making the score 1-0.
 
In the top of the third, Fortunato walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Two at bats later, Sciullo improved W&J's score to 2-1, by recording a base hit to right that brought Fortunato home. Directly after Sciullo's single, Justin Zak would crush his first career home run, a two-run shot to left center, capping W&J's three-run third inning, 4-0.
 
A Vento RBI single with two on and no one out would go on to score LaRue for the first run of the fourth inning to bring the score to 5-2. Shortly after, a pair of sacrifice flies by Fortunato and Zak Keesee plated two more runs concluding the top of the fourth with a score of 7-0.
 
An AJ Melvin single, paired with a walk to Joe Palumbo, loaded the bases, setting up Dan Trettel for a two-run double into center and piling the run total to 9-1. Luke Zahren and Mullen Socha would add another RBI each as the Presidents concluded the second game with a score of 11-1.
 
The President move to 7-6 overall and 3-2 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference while Geneva moves to 6-11 and 1-6 in the PAC.
 
W&J will travel to Beaver Falls, Pa. to take on Geneva for a single nine-inning game and will serve as the home team at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 2.