WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The No. 25 ranked Washington & Jefferson baseball team fell behind early and dropped an 8-5 decision to No. 1 Marietta Wednesday in a non-conference game at Ross Memorial Park.
The loss drops W&J to 4-3 overall while Marietta improves to 10-3. Both squads were ranked in this week's Top 25 poll by D3baseball.com. The game was the first between Top 25 teams at Ross Memorial Park since W&J hosted La Roche in the 2019 season-opening doubleheader.
Marietta jumped on W&J with three runs in the top of the first before adding another in the second and two more in the fourth. The visiting Pioneers tacked on two more in the top of the sixth to take a commanding 8-0 lead.
Back-to-back hits from
Roman Samson (Tampa, Fla./Berkley Prep) and
Joe Lehner (Painesville, Ohio/Lake Catholic) put a pair of runners on base in the bottom of the second but a double play ended the W&J threat.
The W&J offense made things interesting in the later stages of the game.
A three-run home run by
Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) put the Presidents on the board in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 8-3. The Sante blast, his second of the season, scored
Peter Kalinski (Washington, D.C./Saint John's College) and
Logan Scheider (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny), who reached via the walk to open the sixth.
Scout Zaas (Powell, Ohio/Wellington School) pinch hit in the seventh and connected on a mammonth two-run home run over the center field fence. The home run was the first of the career for the freshman.
Jason Gregovits (Avon Lake, Ohio/Avon Lake) led the offense with a 3-for-3 effort at the plate in the loss. Gregovits reached base in all four plate appearances.
Marietta finished with 17 hits in the game. The Presidents used eight total pitchers on the day.
Henry Litman (Marietta, Ga./Walton) was tagged with the loss.
Trent Valentine tossed five scoreless innings to improve his record to 4-0 on the season for Marietta. Valentine has surrendered just one run in 23 innings this spring. Sam Mathews worked the final 2.1 innings and picked up his fourth save in 2022 for the Pioneers.
W&J will head to Florida tomorrow for its Spring Break trip. The Presidents will play six varsity games from March 18-23. The Presidents will open play against Benedictine on Friday, March 18 at 2 p.m.