AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The No. 3/5-ranked Washington & Jefferson baseball team suffered a pair of setbacks to UW-Oshkosh and Centre (Ky.) on Monday, March 19, to continue action at the RussMatt Invitational.
 
The Presidents (7-6) fell to Oshkosh in their first game of the day, 11-1, followed by dropping a 12-8 decision to Centre in the afternoon.
 
The Colonels of Centre College struck first in the first inning with one run on three hits before the Presidents got on the scoreboard in the third inning. Ryan Sciullo (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) reached on an infield single to second base and then came around to score when Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) doubled him home with two outs.
 
In the fourth, Ryan Willen (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange) hit his first career home run, wrapping a two-run shot around the left field pole to give the Presidents a 3-1 lead with two outs. The next batter was Luke Zahren (Ingomar, Pa./North Allegheny) who walked and then raced around to third on a single from Sciullo. Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) proceeded to double down the right field line, bringing in Zahren, followed by an infield single from Socha, which allowed Sciullo to score.
 
With the game now favoring W&J, 5-1, Centre answered with five runs on four hits in the fourth to regain the lead, 6-5.
 
Willen tied the game back up in the next half inning with a sacrifice fly to center before Centre scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to go up 10-6, followed by a run in the sixth and seventh to go ahead by six runs.
 
The final two W&J runs came in the top of the ninth inning on Spencer Howell's (Oakwood, Pa./Oakwood) team-leading second home run of the season, his second in as many days.
 
In the Presidents' first game of the day, Oshkosh scored three runs in the first, four runs in the third and one run in the fifth to take a commanding 8-0 lead. The lone W&J run came across home plate in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single to center from Trettel, scoring Socha, before the Titans scored their final three runs of the game in the top of the seventh inning.
 
Six different batters had one hit in game one while Sciullo, Socha, Justin Griffin (Lombard, Ill./Glenbard East) and Howell all recorded multi-hit games against Centre, with Griffin finishing with a team-leading three hits, one of which went for two bases.
 
Ben Marsico (Bradfordwoods, Pa./North Allegheny) (0-1) was the losing pitcher against Oshkosh, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits over 5.0 innings of work with one walk and two strikeouts. James Trainor (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) followed and allowed three runs in two innings of work. Michael Zito (Nashville, Tenn./Hume-Fogg) and Jansen Eichenlaub (Export, Pa./Franklin Regional) split the final two frames of game one, allowing one hit, no runs and three strikeouts combined.
 
Tanner Gaerke (Plain City, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) started against Centre and received a no decision after working 4.0 innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits with one strikeout. Matt Heslin (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) (0-2) was the losing pitcher after allowing five runs in 2.0 innings. Clay Martin (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) closed the game with one strikeout over 2.0 innings and allowed one run on one hit.
 
The Presidents will get back on the diamond on Thursday, March 22, when they take on No. 2 Wisconsin-Whitewater on Field 7 at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla., at 10:30 a.m.