WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson baseball team swept Point Park in a Wednesday nonconference doubleheader, coming from behind to win 13-11 in the first game before taking game two by a score of 6-3.
The Presidents improved to 20-7 overall with the wins, the sixth straight season with 20 or more wins and 13th time in the last 14 seasons, while the Pioneers fell to 28-15 overall.
After falling behind 7-2 through two and a half innings in the first game,
Adam LaRue (Imperial, Pa./West Allegheny),
Derek Helbing (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial) and
Nick Vento (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) notched consecutive singles to load the bases. The next batter was
Frank Fortunato (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) who blasted the first pitch of the at bat over the left-center field fence for a grand slam.
Nick Gatins (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton) followed with a solo shot just two pitches later, his fourth of the season, to tie the game at seven runs a side.
With two outs and runners on second and third, LaRue came up again and doubled to center field to plate both runners to cap the Presidents' seven-run inning, giving them a 9-7 lead.
Ryan Sciullo (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) led off the bottom of the fifth inning with an infield single to shortstop and came around to score on the next pitch, thanks to an RBI double down the left field line from
Zak Keesee (Howard, Ohio/Ridgewood). After
Luke Zahren (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) singled to score Keesee and advanced to second on the throw,
Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) sacrificed Zahren to third. LaRue came up next and laid down a successful safety squeeze bunt to score Zahren.
Helbing rounded out the W&J scoring in the first game with a solo home run to right field, his fifth of the year to tie the team lead, before the Pioneers scored twice in the sixth and seventh innings each to finish the game.
The Presidents scored their first two runs of the first game in the second inning, trailing 5-0, when Sciullo doubled to center, following a Gatins triple, and a sacrifice fly from Zahren to score Sciullo.
In the second game, the Presidents struck first with two runs in the first inning as Gatins doubled to left, scoring
Kevin Begley (Allison Park, Pa./Deer Lakes) who doubled down the left field line with one out, and
Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) singled up the middle to score Gatins.
W&J tacked on its third run of the game in the second thanks to a throwing error and proceeded to score twice more in the third on an RBI single to right by
Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) and a sac fly from
Jake Gordon (Hatfield, Pa./Pennridge). Gatins capped the W&J scoring in game two with an RBI single up the middle to score Dalesandro, giving the Presidents a 6-0 fourth inning lead.
The three Pioneer runs came in the sixth inning on a three-run home run by Stefan Mrkonja.
All starting President hitters tallied at least one hit in the first game, including six with multi-hit games, as LaRue led the team with three hits in the game and three RBI. Five W&J starters recorded at least one hit in game two, including multi-hit games from Begley, Gatins, Merlino and Trettel.
Garrett Harstine (New Philadelphia, Ohio/New Philadelphia) (1-0) earned his first win of the season as he pitched 3.2 innings in relief of starter
Clay Martin (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) and allowed four runs (one earned) on four hits with two strikeouts. Helbing notched his second save of the season as he pitched the seventh and allowed just one hit.
Santino Platt (Pittsburgh, Pa./OLSH) (2-0) was the winning pitcher in game two with three perfect innings, including three strikeouts.
Trevor Kerr (Orrville, Ohio/Orrville),
Tanner Gaerke (Plain City, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) and
James Trainor (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) each pitched an inning in relief of Platt before
Mitchell Taufer (Washington, Pa./Bishop Canevin) earned his first save of the season, striking out all three batters he faced.
The Presidents will begin a three-game series with Geneva on Friday, April 21, playing on the road at 4:00 p.m. before hosting the Golden Tornadoes for a doubleheader on Saturday.
