AUBURNDALE, Fla. – A game-tying home run in the ninth inning led to a 5-4 walk-off win in the tenth for the No. 11 Washington & Jefferson baseball team before it dropped a 6-0 contest to UW-Stevens Point in the final day of the team's trip to Florida.
 
The final day split with the Pointers gives the Presidents an 8-8 overall record heading back north.
 
With the game tied at 4-4 entering the bottom of the tenth of game one, Luke Zahren (Ingomar, Pa./North Allegheny) led off the inning with a single to right on a 0-2 pitch. After moving up to second on a wild pitch, Zahren advanced to third on a foul out down the right field line. The next batter was Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) who lifted the first pitch from the new Stevens Point pitcher down the right field line, deep enough for Zahren to cross home for the winning run on the sacrifice fly.
 
Trailing by a 4-2 margin entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) singled to shallow left-center field to bring the tying run to the plate. Two batters later, James Artale (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) entered the game as a pinch hitter and sent a 0-1 pitch over the right-center field fence to tie the game, his second home run of the season.
 
The Presidents struck first in the second inning when Merlino doubled down the left field line and then came across home three batters later on a Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) single to right-center field.
 
The Pointers were quick to respond, however, scoring once with two outs in the top of the third inning before adding a run on a sac fly in the top of the sixth to take their first lead of the game, 2-1.
 
After Stevens Point scored two unearned runs in the top of the seventh, Zahren led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a double to left-center field. Zahren moved up to third base on a ground out then scored on another ground out to cut the W&J deficit to 4-2.
 
Bryce Schnatterly (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) was the starting pitcher for W&J in game one and earned a no decision after working 7.0 innings, allowing four runs (two earned) with one walk and six strikeouts. Clay Martin (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings and allowed just one hit with two strikeouts. Will Bowser (Burgettstown, Pa./Madonna (W.Va.)) (2-0) earned the win after pitching a perfect tenth inning with a pair of strikeouts.
 
In the second game, Stevens Point rallied for three unearned runs with two outs to take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning before scoring three more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to increase its lead to six and round out the scoring for the game.
 
Merlino, Dalesandro and Zahren all recorded two hits in the first game and combined to score three runs. Trettel, Artale and AJ Melvin (Alexandria, Va./West Potomac) recorded one hit each in game two, the only three hits in the game for W&J.
 
Santino Platt (Pittsburgh, Pa./OLSH) (1-1) was the pitcher of record in the 6-0 loss to the Pointers, allowing one earned run in 6.2 innings of work on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Platt began the game by retiring the first nine batters he faced. Ben Marsico (Bradfordwoods, Pa./North Allegheny) closed out the seventh inning after allowing one run before Michael Zito (Nashville, Tenn./Hume-Fogg) pitched a scoreless eighth.
 
The Presidents will be back in action on Friday, March 30, when they take on Thomas More at Ross Memorial Park at 6:00 p.m. in the first game of a three-game series. Friday's game against the Saints will be a nonconference game while the Saturday doubleheader will count towards the conference standings.