WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson baseball team won a pair of games over Saint Vincent by scores of 15-4 and 9-0 to stay unbeaten in Presidents' Athletic Conference action on Thursday, April 5.
 
The two wins give the Presidents a 13-8 overall record with a 6-0 mark in conference and extend their winning streak over Saint Vincent to nine games, four of those games being shutout victories.
 
In the bottom of the first inning with runners on first and third and one out, Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) doubled to left-center field to bring Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) across home plate for the first run of the game. After Spencer Howell (Oakwood, Ohio/Oakwood) walked two batters later to load the bases, Ryan Sciullo (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) scored from third on a balk.
 
The W&J bats came alive in the second inning, totaling six runs on six hits with 11 batters coming to the plate. The inning was highlighted by an RBI single from Merlino, a one-run double from Howell, a two-RBI double to right-center field by Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) and a run-scoring single to left off the bat of Nick Guercio (Cabot, Pa./Knoch), his first career hit and RBI.
 
In the third, Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) scored the ninth W&J run of the game on a wild pitch before Justin Griffin (Lombard, Ill./Glenbard East) singled through the left side to score Merlino to put the Presidents up 10-0.
 
Saint Vincent got on the scoreboard with one run in the top of the fourth and tacked on one additional run in each of the fifth through seventh innings. W&J kept the bats going, however, scoring twice more in the fourth and three runs in the fifth as the game was called after the top of the seventh due to the 10-run mercy rule.
 
Ben Marsico (Bradfordwoods, Pa./North Allegheny) took the mound to start game two and tossed six shutout innings for his second consecutive scoreless start, extending his shutout-innings streak to 14.  Marsico scattered four Saint Vincent hits in his six innings of work, did not walk a hitter and struck out one, needing just 50 pitches to improve to 2-1 on the season.
 
Luke Zahren (Ingomar, Pa./North Allegheny) led off the bottom of the third inning with a double to right-center field before crossing two batters later on a RBI ground out from Sciullo. The Presidents' second run was put on the board in the bottom of the fourth when Dalesandro singled home Howell, who tripled to right center one batter prior.
 
Socha began the fifth inning with a single to center before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt and moving to third on a wild pitch. Merlino then laced a ball up the middle, allowing Socha to score and give W&J a 3-0 lead.
 
After the first two batters logged outs to begin the sixth inning, Zahren and Socha hit back-to-back singles before Trettel doubled Zahren home and moved Socha up to third. After a pitching change, Socha raced home for the fifth Presidents run on a wild pitch.
 
Merlino led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a solo home run over the right-field fence, his first of the year and 12th of his career, before the Presidents tacked on three runs on three hits and an error in the bottom of the eighth to finish the scoring.
 
Mitchell Taufer (Washington, Pa./Bishop Canevin), Clay Martin (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) and Will Bowser (Burgettstown, Pa./Madonna (W.Va.)) closed out game two by pitching 1.0 inning each as the trio did not allow a hit and combined to strike out four hitters with just one walk.
 
Merlino led the way for the W&J offense, going 6-for-9 with three hits in both games. The senior first baseman drove in six runs, three in each game, scored three times, walked once and stole two bases. Socha had four hits in seven at-bats between the two games with six runs scored, a walk and stolen base while Trettel batted 5-for-8 with four runs, a RBI and a stolen base.
 
Griffin went 4-for-8 at the plate with a three-hit performance in game two as six different Presidents combined for nine multi-hit efforts between the two games.
 
Zahren stole a career-high three bases in game one, the most stolen bases in a single game since Socha swiped three bags on March 19, 2017, against Elmhurst (Ill.).
 
Santino Platt (Pittsburgh, Pa./OLSH) started game one and pitched 5.0 innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Tanner Gaerke (Plain City, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) pitched the sixth inning and gave up one unearned run with two strikeouts before Garrett Harstine (New Philadelphia, Ohio/New Philadelphia) allowed the final Saint Vincent run in the top of the seventh.
 
The Presidents will return to action for a PAC doubleheader at Thiel on Saturday, April 7, with game one getting underway at 1:00 p.m.