WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Frank Fortunato (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) delivered a bases-clearing double in the seventh inning to give fourth-seeded Washington & Jefferson a 7-3 lead, and Bryce Schnatterly (Cranberry Twp., Pa./Seneca Valley) went 6.1 innings as the Presidents advanced to the championship round of the 2017 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional by virtue of an 8-4 win over sixth-seeded Keystone.

The victory improves No. 16 W&J to 37-10 on the season, establishing a new single-season program record for wins. The championship round of the regional is set to begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday if Keystone wins an elimination game at 12:45 p.m. If either number two seed SUNY Cortland or number seven seed DePauw are victorious in Sunday's 9 a.m. and then the consolation final against Keystone, the title round will begin on Monday as no team is permitted to play more than two games in one day.

"Another big one for the Presidents," head coach Jeff Mountain said. "This is a hungry team. The mindset was set by the upperclassmen. We didn't get out to the start we wanted to last year and that was disappointing. These older guys learned from that and we are happy to be in this position, but it doesn't surprise us. We preached to play hard every game. We just want to go at it and be loose."

The Presidents never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. After the first two runners reached by a hit-by-pitch and walk, respectively, senior Nick Vento (Murrysville, Pa./Franklin Regional) delivered an RBI single to open the scoring. W&J scored its second run on a sacrifice fly and Vento came around to score after Ryan Sciullo (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) stayed in a rundown long enough on a first and third steal play.

"We scored early here a couple times in the tournament," Mountain said. "That has been a big thing. They had momentum from their win early but we took that away early because they had to stay out in the field. We saw a lot of pitches and worked a lot of deep counts. It was big to get off to a good start."   

Vento collected his second straight four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Vento's career hit total is now up to 245, six shy of tying the program record.

Schnatterly was dealing through the first five innings as he didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning and didn't allow a run until the fifth inning on a solo home run by Bray Curreri, his first of the season. 

After the home run, the Giants (33-14) put runners on first and second, but Schnatterly was able to wiggle out of the jam with a pickoff move to first base.

"I was upset with that pitch," Schnatterly said. "It was an 0-2 count and I left a pitch up. I just took some time to settle down after that. Mark [Merlino] (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) made a great call to catch the runner sleeping to make it easier on me to get that last out."

The Presidents and Giants continued to trade blows through the middle innings. Keystone got its second home run of the evening off of Schnatterly, this time it was Austin Chaszar's first of the season to bring the Giants to within 4-3.

W&J laid the knockout punch in the seventh inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, Fortunato delivered an opposite field three-run double to open up a 7-3 lead; he finished the game 2-for-4.

"I have been struggling a little bit and tried to change things up," Fortunato said. "I went up there just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere. I just went with it to right center."

Will Bowser (Burgettstown, Pa./Madonna (W.Va.)) closed the door for the Presidents, striking out seven batters in his 2.2 innings of relief. The save was Bowser's first of the season as Schnatterly got the win, improving to 8-0 this year.

"[Will] has come a long way," Mountain said. "Stuff was never an issue with him. He has a good fastball and a really good hard breaking ball. The key for him is strike one. If he is around the strike zone, he will get some swings. He gave us a good effort."

Keystone will have a chance at a rematch with W&J, as they will play the winner of second-seeded SUNY Cortland and seventh-seeded DePauw at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday.