GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson baseball team defeated Thiel 11-0 in the opening game of a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader before falling, 4-3, in the second game on Sunday afternoon, April 8.
 
The doubleheader split puts the Presidents' overall record at 14-9 and hands them their first PAC loss of the season (7-1).
 
Bryce Schnatterly (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) notched his second complete game of the season, fourth of his career, as he allowed no runs on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts to lead W&J to victory in game one. He retired each of the first eight batters of the game and finished with four no-hit innings and three perfect innings to improve to 4-0 this season and record his second career shutout.
 
With runners on second and third and no outs in the top of the second inning, Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) put the Presidents on the board with an RBI ground out, allowing Justin Griffin (Lombard, Ill./Glenbard East) to score from third. AJ Melvin (Alexandria, Va./West Potomac) then reached on an error which allowed Spencer Howell (Oakwood, Ohio/Oakwood) to score.
 
In the fourth, W&J loaded the bases with nobody out before Luke Zahren (Ingomar, Pa./North Allegheny) hit a two-RBI double to left field to double the Presidents' lead to four. Two batters later with the bases loaded again, Dan Trettel (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) doubled down the left-field line, scoring Zahren and Melvin to give W&J a 6-0 lead. Ryan Sciullo (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) followed with a two-run single to complete the six-run fourth and put the Presidents up 8-0.
 
Two of the first three hitters singled to begin the sixth inning for W&J before Mark Merlino (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) doubled to left field, bringing Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) and Sciullo across home plate to put the Presidents up 10-0. The final run came in thanks to a sacrifice fly off the bat of Griffin, scoring Merlino.
 
Trailing by a 4-2 score heading to the ninth inning in game two, W&J loaded the bases with two outs and Socha at the plate. The first pitch landed in the dirt and got away from the Thiel catcher, allowing Nick Krugh (Pittsburgh, Pa./Seton LaSalle) to score from third. But that was the final run of the game as the Tomcats pitched their way out of trouble to hang on for the win.
 
After Thiel scored once in the bottom of the second to open the scoring in the game, Sciullo responded for the Presidents with a one-out, two-run home run to left field, his second home run of the season and 12th of his career.
 
The Tomcats tacked on three runs on three hits and an error in the bottom of the fourth to claim a 4-2 lead until the top of the ninth inning.
 
Sciullo and Howell both had four hits between the two games with Sciullo finishing 4-for-7 with a home run and four RBI and Howell going 4-for-8 with two runs and a walk. Griffin, Socha and Dalesandro rounded out the group of Presidents who had a hit in both games. In game one, Merlino, Trettel, Zahren and Sciullo all drove in two runs to lead the W&J offense.
 
Matt Heslin (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) was tagged with the loss in game two after allowing four earned runs in 4.0 innings with a pair of strikeouts. The trio of Garrett Harstine (New Philadephia, Ohio/New Philadelphia), Mitchell Taufer (Washington, Pa./Bishop Canevin) and Clay Martin (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) closed out the game on the mound, combining for four scoreless innings and allowing two hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
 
Harstine struck out the side in the fifth inning before Taufer pitched 1.1 innings and allowed two hits with two strikeouts. Martin relieved Taufer and got a double play to get out of the seventh before striking out the lead-off hitter in the eighth and finishing off the inning with another double play to lower his team-leading earned-run average (ERA) to 0.69.
 
The Presidents will step out of PAC play on Tuesday, April 10, when they travel to La Roche for a 4:30 p.m. matchup with the Redhawks.