WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team secured the top seed this past weekend with a sweep of Allegheny College and will host the conference's top teams in the 2023 PAC Baseball Championship Tournament. W&J is hosting the four-team double elimination tournament at Ross Memorial Park for the sixth straight time.
The format and ranking of the four teams are identical to the 2022 campaign. W&J (17-3 PAC) serves as the top seed while Grove City (16-4) is the second seed. Saint Vincent (13-7) and Westminster (13-7) round out the four-team field as the third and fourth seeds, respectively.
Looking at the Presidents: W&J enters the tournament as the top seed in the PAC and will be headed by a leader in all phases of the game by senior
Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa. / Penn-Trafford) and junior slugger
Nolan Lutz (McDonald, Pa. / South Fayette).
Horvat has been a dominant force this year as he looks to cap off his legacy in the Red & Black. Horvat highlights both the Presidents batters and pitchers as he boasts a .386 batting average with a 1.051 on base plus slugging percentage (OPS), 59 hits, six triples, 27 RBI, and 24 stolen bases. The 24 stolen bases are a single-season school record total for the Presidents. Horvat holds a 3.14 earned run average with career highs in wins (10), strikeouts (80), and innings pitched (83) this season. Horvat enters the tournament with 28 career wins, which is tied for the most in program history.
Lutz has enjoyed a breakout season for the Presidents. Lutz is right behind Horvat in batting average, holding a .385 average with 117 at bats. He has 45 hits and a 1.122 OPS with four home runs on the season. His .650 slugging percentage is best among the W&J regulars.
Some other key impact batters in the Presidents lineup from the 2023 regular season include senior
Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Plum),
Scout Zaas (Powell, Ohio / Wellington School), and
Jacob LaDuca (Clarence, N.Y. / Canisius). Each held a batting average above .284 which was led by Sante with a .312 average at the plate. Sante also leads the Presidents in home runs on the season with five and RBI with 36. LaDuca has provided great speed on the base paths to add to Horvat's success as a speedster earning 13 steals on the season on 15 attempts. Zaas has been a crucial piece to the middle of the lineup as he has paced the season with 33 hits, 53 total bases, and 21 RBI.
Josh Dezenzo (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) is an intriguing player to watch for the Presidents. After missing most of 2023, the freshman infielder enters with a six-game hitting streak. He has a pair of home runs and nine RBI over the past six games since his return to the lineup.
W&J's pitching staff has been hampered with injuries in 2023 but has remained resilient as arms such as
Nate Nolan (McDonald, Pa. / West Allegheny),
Mason Kolbe (Bradenton, Fla. / Out-of-Door Academy), and
Ethan Boring (Ligonier, Pa. / Ligonier Valley) have answered the call.
Nolan has been pressed into action in the second starting spot behind Horvat. Nolan holds a 4.46 ERA on the year with a 5-2 record. He has 24 strikeouts in 34.1 innings pitched. He allowed just one hit through four innings in game two of the necessary sweep of Allegheny this past weekend that enabled the Presidents to nail down the top seed in the PAC.
Kolbe and Boring have each become crucial assets to the Presidents bullpen. Kolbe boasts a 1.06 ERA in 17 innings pitched with two saves on the year. Meanwhile, Boring holds a 2.45 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 22 innings pitched.
The Presidents are led by 21st year head coach
Jeff Mountain. The veteran leader of the Red and Black picked up his 600th career win with the sweep of Allegheny last Saturday. He guides the Presidents into the PAC Tournament in search of their 15th PAC title. The Presidents have captured 10 conference titles during his tenure with the first coming in 2004.
The Opposition:
Grove City College (No. 2) – The Grove City Wolverines enter the 2023 PAC Tournament with a 16-4 conference record that garnered a close second place seeding in the conference. The Wolverines entered Saturday with a chance to host the PAC Tournament but suffered a loss to Chatham in the regular season finale.
The Wolverines offense is headed by sophomore Mally Kilbane, who has hit his way to the top of the PAC. Kilbane finished the regular season as the PAC's leading hitter, as he has compoiled a .462 overall average. Kilbane also leads the conference in on-base percentage. The slugger collected 60 hits, 14 doubles, 38 RBI, and 25 walks.
Right behind Kilbane in the Wolverines stacked offensive weapons lies senior catcher C.J. Saylor. Saylor has been a staple of the Wolverines baseball program that is aiming for its first conference title since 2008.
Encapsulating the words of the great Bill Parcells, Saylor has been the epitome of his quote, "the best ability is availability". The durable backstop has appeared in 123 games and 119 starts during his time with the program. Saylor holds a .348 average tallied 48 hits, eight doubles, seven triples, and a staggering 50 RBI in his senior season for the Wolverines.
The Grove City pitching staff is headed by Tate Ostrowski, the fifth-year ace who looks to continue his impactful final season for the Wolverines. Ostrowski holds a 3.23 ERA with a 9-1 record. Ostrowski's lone setback came in a 7-6 loss to Allegheny. Ostrowski has racked up 102 strikeouts in 75.1 innings pitched this season.
The Wolverines are led by head coach Matt Royer, who helped the Wolverines qualify for their fourth-straight PAC Tournament.
Saint Vincent College (No. 3) – The Saint Vincent Bearcats will look to enter the PAC Tournament capping off their regular season efforts with a three-game win streak which included a split with Allegheny and a two-game series sweep of Thiel College. The Bearcats finished with a 20-16 overall record and a 13-7 PAC record to cap off their regular season efforts.
Junior first baseman Billy "Baseball" Perroz concluded the regular season with a PAC-leading slugging percentage of .746. Perroz also led the PAC in OPS with a top mark of 1.227. In his second year as a Bearcat, Perroz hit his way to a .425 batting average in 36 games. He totaled 57 hits, 16 doubles, seven home runs, and 36 RBI. The Vandergrift native was a problem for Grove City in the two regular season meetings. Perroz tallied three hits and walked twice against the Wolverines. He had a double, triple and home run in the head-to-head meetings.
Senior outfielder Jordan Sabol will look to continue to wear out opposing pitchers. Sabol tied for the PAC lead with 32 walks.He also found himself fourth overall in the PAC in on-base percentage due to his high walk rate. Sabol batted .333 on the regular season with 36 games played, which enabled him to compile 37 hits, two home runs, 21 RBI. Sabol was a consistent contributor to the Bearcats for the past four years including his best full year at Saint Vincent in 2021 where he batted .402 on the season with career highs in hits (51), triples (3), and runs scored (41).
The Bearcats pitching staff will be led by one of their standout pitchers, Jeremy Kreuzwieser. With 42.2 innings pitched, Kreuzwieser is second on the Bearcats roster in ERA (3.37) and third with strikeouts (29) earned throughout the season. He holds a 4-2 record with his best win coming against Chatham when he pitched a three-hit game through 6.1 innings where he only allowed one run.
Mick Janosko is in his 26th season as leader of the Bearcats. He has helped send the Saint Vincent baseball program to the PAC Tournament in three consecutive seasons. They finished as the runner-up in 2021.
Westminster College (No. 4) – The Titans are making a return trip to the tournament after posting a runner-up finish last spring. The Titans are coming off of a sweep of Bethany College, which included a big comeback in game one where they overcame a 7-3 deficit in the later innings. The Titans needed both wins over the Bison to secure their spot in the 2023 PAC Championship Tournament. Westminster enters the tournament with 20-18 overall record and a 13-7 PAC record.
Carter Chinn, a junior from Grove City, Pa., highlights the Titans offense. A two-sport athlete, Chinn led the Titans starters in the batter's box this regular season, as he boasts a .358 batting average in 32 games played. Chinn tallied 38 hits, 10 doubles, four triples, and 24 RBI in 2023. His on=base percentage was good enough to slot in the top 10 of the PAC top batters as he garners a .473 on-base percentage attributing to his 1.001 OPS on the season. Chinn also leads the Titans offensive starters with a slugging percentage of .528. One of his better games this spring came in a game against W&J. He had two hits, a double, two walks, and two runs scored to earn a game one win over the Presidents.
Backing up Chinn for the Titans offense is the Central Valley product Logan Murgenovich. The junior infielder for the Titans has seen constant progression throughout his career in Blue & White as he has a career-high .347 batting average this season. Murgenovich has walked 30 walks this season, which is good enough to slot him fourth in the PAC. Murgenovich accumulated 50 hits, 10 doubles, two home runs, and 31 RBI this past season in 38 appearances.
Heading the Titans pitching staff is junior left-handed pitcher Logan Exler. The lefty arm pitched his way to a career-best 2.87 ERA in nine appearances (seven starts) which slates him as the second-best ERA in the PAC. Exler tossed 53.1 innings and holds a 5-2 record. The junior also added complete game efforts against Geneva and Saint Vincent. Against Geneva, Exler pitched 7.0 innings where he only gave up two earned runs, struck out two with no walks.
Fourth-year Titans taskmaster Patrick Riley leads his Titans to their second straight appearance in the PAC Baseball Tournament. Riley has seen consistent growth in his program since he took the reigns and will look for a breakthrough in this week's tournament.
PAC Tournament Information -- The league's four-team, double-elimination championship tournament will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 11-13 at Ross Memorial Park in Washington, Pa. The PAC Sports Network (PACSN) will deliver live broadcasts of all of this year's tournament games at pacstream.net.
The Tournament will begin at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 11, with top-seed W&J (28-12, 17-3 PAC) taking on fourth-seed Westminster College (20-18, 13-7 PAC) in Game A. At 4 p.m. in Game B, second-seeded Grove City College (29-9, 16-4 PAC) will face No. 3 Saint Vincent College (20-16, 13-7 PAC). Both of Thursday's matchups are rematches from day one of the 2022 PAC Tournament. The tournament will continue through Saturday's championship game(s).
The PAC Championship Tournament winner will earn the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. Selections for the Division III Championship are scheduled to be announced Monday, May 15 with regional preliminary round play slated for Friday-Monday, May 19-21. Regional champions will compete in the May 26th-28th Super Regionals, a best-of-three series, to determine the eight participants in this year's Division III College World Series, scheduled for Friday-Wednesday, June 2-8. The Division III College World Series will be held at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Admission will be $5 dollars for adults and $2 dollars for non-W&J students and senior citizens. W&J students will receive free entry with their ID. Per W&J's pet policy, no pets are permitted inside of Ross Memorial Park.
2023 PAC Baseball Championship Tournament
Thursday, May 11
1 p.m. Game A - No. 4 Westminster vs. No. 1 W&J
4 p.m. Game B - No. 3 Saint Vincent vs. No. 2 Grove City
Friday, May 12
12 p.m. Game C - Game A winner vs. Game B winner
3 p.m. Game D - Game A loser vs. Game B loser
6 p.m. Game E - Game C loser vs. Game D winner
Saturday, May 13
1 p.m. Game F - Game C winner vs. Game E winner
4 p.m. Game G - If Necessary game
Sunday, May 14
TBD Rain Date
