NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- Leading 12-3 after seven innings, the Presidents erupted for 11 runs in the eighth inning to give head coach Jeff Mountain his 400th career victory with a 23-3 win at Westminster.

The victory improves the No. 21-ranked Washington & Jefferson baseball team to 13-3 on the season and a perfect 8-0 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference and gives W&J a regular season sweep of the Titans for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. Westminster drops to 5-15 overall and 2-7 in league games.

For Mountain, the 15th-year head coach needed just 622 games to reach 400 victories giving him a career winning percentage of .644. W&J left little doubt on Wednesday, scoring at least one run in each of the first six innings to build a 12-3 lead.

The Presidents plated three runs in the third inning, including two on a double by left fielder Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) and another on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Luke Zahren (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny), 5-1. After adding a run in the fourth on a solo home run by right fielder Nick Vento (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional), the Presidents tacked on four more runs in the fifth. With two outs, second baseman Adam LaRue (Imperial, Pa./West Allegheny) doubled home designated hitter Nick Gatins (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton), who walked to lead off the frame. LaRue then came in to score on catcher Derek Helbing's (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial) second home run of the season and his career. The inning was capped when first baseman Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) drove in Vento with a single to center field.

LaRue picked up another RBI on his second double, this one with one out in the sixth and Helbing added an RBI ground out to push the lead out to 12-3.

W&J sent 16 men to the plate in the eighth in scoring 11 runs. Trettel had an RBI triple in the frame, while Shayne Erny (North Ridgeville, Ohio/St. Edward) posted a pair of RBI doubles after pinch hitting for Vento. Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) also recorded a pair of hits in the inning as the Presidents recorded seven base knocks in the inning.

In total, 12 different Presidents tallied at least one of W&J's 21 hits (including 10 extra-base hits), which mark the third game this season with 20-plus hits and the ninth time W&J has pounded out double-digit hits. The 23 runs for W&J are the most in a game since March 30, 2009 when the Presidents went for 27 runs at Bethany. It also marks the fifth time W&J has crossed 20 runs under Mountain's leadership.

LaRue, Helbing and Trettel each drove in three runs on the day, with LaRue, Trettel and Vento all contributing three hits. Erny, Merlino and Socha each notched a pair of hits.

Matt Heslin (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) earned the win as the starting pitcher for W&J, who threw a predetermined eight pitchers on the day. Heslin improved to 2-0 and gave up four hits and a run in 2.0. The final three pitchers of the afternoon for the Presidents, Will Bowser (Burgettstown, Pa./Madonna (W.Va.)) (two strikeouts), Tim Mulvey (Glenshaw, Pa./Our Lady of the Sacred Heart) (three strike outs) and Mitchell Taufer (Washington, Pa./Bishop Canevin) (two strike outs) combined to fan seven hitters over the final 3.0 innings.

W&J is scheduled for a three-game series against Grove City this weekend, beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 7 with a single nine-inning game in Washington.