WASHINGTON, Pa. – Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the No. 18 Washington & Jefferson baseball team a 9-8 win over Thiel to advance to the Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.
 
Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) led off the bottom of the 10th inning and ripped a double over the leaping Tomcat third baseman for a double. After advancing to third base on a sacrifice bunt, Merlino was replaced at third with Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) who raced home on Dalesandro's bouncer to second base to give the Presidents their 31st win of the season.
 
Trailing 7-4 heading to the bottom of the seventh inning, the Presidents started a two-out rally with the bases loaded when Merlino doubled to center to drive in Nick Vento (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) and Frank Fortunato (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan). After Thiel made a pitching change, Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) reached on a fielding error, allowing Sciullo to score from third to tie the game. The Presidents regained a lead at 8-7 during the next at-bat when Merlino scored from third before Trettel was tagged out in a rundown between first and second.
 
Thiel quickly retied the game with a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning to ultimately send the game to extra innings.
 
The Tomcats got on the board once in both of the first two innings before the Presidents got their bats going in the bottom of the second. With one out, Merlino walked and Trettel singled to put runners on first and second. Two batters later, Adam LaRue (Imperial, Pa./West Allegheny) reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Derek Helbing (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial) followed with a single to center to score Merlino and Trettel. Vento gave the Presidents their first lead of the game with a single through the right side to cap the inning.
 
After the Tomcats tacked on two runs in the third and fourth innings each, the Presidents manufactured a run in the bottom of the fourth when LaRue singled to lead off the inning. After advancing to second on a wild pitch, LaRue moved to third on a ground out, then scored on a ground out to cut the W&J deficit to 6-4.
 
Five Presidents recorded multi-hit games on the day, led by Vento who went 3-for-5 at the dish, including two doubles, with two RBI and a run. Merlino finished 2-for-3 with a double, two RBI and two runs while Helbing, LaRue and Trettel each had two hits and combined to score three times.
 
Riley Groves (Louisville, Ohio/Louisville) lasted 4.0 innings as the W&J starting pitcher and gave up six runs (three earned) on 10 hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Matt Heslin (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) and Helbing quieted the Tomcat bats over the final six innings as Heslin gave up two runs (one earned) on three hits in four innings while Helbing earned the win (3-0) as he pitched the final two innings with no runs, one hit, two walks and a strikeout.
 
The Presidents will advance to play Grove City in the first game of the day on Friday, May 12, at 12:00 p.m.

Highlights:
Socha scores the winning run to give the Presidents the 9-8 win over Thiel

BA: Dalesandro sends W&J to the PAC semifinals with a 10th inning walk-off! #prezpride #d3b pic.twitter.com/yUjxSZXP8e

— W&J Athletics (@wjathletics) May 11, 2017