WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team earned a pair of wins over visiting Westminster College to sweep a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader Saturday at Ross Memorial Park. The sweep improves W&J to 10-0 overall and 8-0 in league play.
Game 1 - W&J 4, Westminster 2
Henry Litman (Marietta, Ga./Walton) tossed 6.1 strong innings to lead W&J to a 4-2 victory over the Titans in game one. Litman allowed just two runs on six hits. He struck out seven and walked just one as he improved to 3-0 on the season.
W&J scored first when
Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) came home on a wild pitch in the second inning.
Adam Moore (Olean, N.Y./Archbishop Walsh) singled home
Adam Morris (South Park, Pa./South Park) to make the score 2-0 W&J in the fifth inning.
After Westminster cut the deficit in half (2-1) in the top of the sixth with an RBI single,
Jameson Campbell (Painesville, Ohio/Painesville Riverside) doubled home Sante to give W&J a 3-1 lead. An RBI groundout by
Jason Gregovits (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon Lake) gave the Presidents an insurance run and extended the edge to 4-1 with three outs to go.
Westminster picked up a run in the top of the seventh and threatened to tie the game. However,
Michael Zito (Nashville, Tenn./Hume-Fogg) recorded the final two outs on a double play to earn his fourth save of the season.
Morris and Zito recorded two hits apiece to pace the W&J offense in game one.
Game 2 - W&J 7, Westminster 6 (10 Innings)
Game two was a back and forth affair that needed extra innings to decide a winner. W&J plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead after an RBI double by Morris and a RBI single by Sante. Westminster answered quickly, as a two-run home run in the top of the second inning tied the game.
Peter Kalinski (Washington, D.C./Saint John's College) laced a two-run double in the bottom of the second to help W&J regain the lead at 4-2. The Titans used a three-run third inning to take a 5-4 edge. Kalinski then tacked on a sac fly to even the score at 5-5 in the fourth.
An RBI single in the top of the fifth inning gave the Titans a 6-5 lead. Westminster appeared poised to hand W&J its first defeat of 2021, as the visitors carried that lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. Down to their final three outs, Zito drew a walk to lead off the frame.
Luke Virag (New Kensington, Pa./Burrell) replaced Zito after a fielders choice and moved to second on a passed ball. A pinch hit single by
Alec Jackson (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) put runners on the corners with one out.
Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) did what he needed to do, bringing Virag home to tie the score with a sac fly.
The Titans put a pair of runners on in the top of the 10th but failed to bring the go-ahead run across. The Westminster bullpen came unglued in the bottom of the 10th, as all four Presidents to come to the plate reached base and W&J walked off with the win.
Trevor Dean (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) drew a bases loaded walk to bring home Morris to secure the win for W&J.
Kalinski, Morris and Sante registered multi-hit efforts in game two.
Kamden Kautz (Oro Valley, Ariz./Ironwood Ridge) earned the win in relief, as he pitched a scoreless 10th inning out of the pen.
W&J (10-0, 8-0) travels to Westminster on Sunday for a doubleheader to complete the weekend series.
