NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson baseball team used strong pitching and timely hitting to secure a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep at Westminster College Saturday afternoon. W&J took game one 3-0 before securing a 5-3 victory in game two.
Game One – W&J 3, Westminster 0
Jameson Campbell (Painesville, Ohio/Painesville Riverside) was the story in game one. He improved his record to 9-1 with a dominant two-hit shutout of the Titans. Campbell struck out nine and walked three in the 117-pitch effort. The nine wins are the most by a PAC pitcher this season.
W&J scored a pair of runs on three hits in the fourth inning to grab the lead.
Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) and
Peter Kalinski (Washington, D.C./Saint Johns College) led off with back-to-back singles. They advanced 90 feet on a sac bunt by
Roman Samson (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley Prep).
Rush then scored on an RBI groundout by
Nolan Lutz (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette).
Jacob LaDuca (Clarence, N.Y./Canisius) then came through with a two-out RBI single to plate Kalinski to make it 2-0 W&J.
W&J added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning.
Knox Meier (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley Prep) tripled to start the frame before scoring on an RBI single by Kalinski with two outs.
Kalinski finished game one by going a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate. Rush added a pair of hits as well in the opener.
Game Two – W&J 5, Westminster 3
W&J overcame an early deficit to secure the sweep of Westminster in game two. The Titans pushed two runs across in the first and another in the second to take a 3-0 lead. However, the Presidents used a four-run third inning to take the lead for good.
Joe Lehner (Painesville, Ohio/Lake Catholic),
John Klein (Vienna, Va./Madison) and Rush all singled to load the bases with no outs. After a lineout,
Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn Trafford) singled to left to plate W&J's first run. Samson followed with an RBI single to score Klein. Meier evened the score at 3-3 with a sac fly to right that scored Rush.
Horvat advanced home in a rundown play before the third out could be recorded. The Horvat run gave W&J a 4-3 advantage.
W&J tacked on its fifth run in the top of the ninth. Meier led off with a double and advanced to third on a sac bunt by
Logan Scheider (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny). Kalinski made the lead 5-3 with a single up the middle to score Meier. Kalinski's hit was his 100th of his career and fifth of the day.
Horvat improved his record to 7-1 on the mound. He gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits in 7.0 innings of work.
Dante DiMatteo (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) recorded the final six outs to pick up his ninth save of the season.
W&J improves to 24-2 in PAC play and 31-8 overall. The losses drop Westminster to 17-9 in the league and 22-16 overall.
The teams will conclude the regular season Sunday at Ross Memorial Park. The single nine-inning game will start at 1 p.m. W&J will honor its eight seniors prior to first pitch Sunday.
