WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team rolled to a resounding 12-3 victory over Saint Vincent in the title round of the 2023 Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships Saturday afternoon at Ross Memorial Park.
The PAC title is the fourth-straight for the Presidents and 15th in program history. W&J has won 11 conference titles under 21st year head coach
Jeff Mountain.
The win is the 12th straight for the Presidents in PAC Tournament play. The win is the sixth-straight for W&J, who improves to 31-12 overall. The loss ends Saint Vincent's season at 22-18.
Shane Fox (Valencia, Pa./Mars Area) was handed the ball in the clincher and did what he needed to do. He turned in a season-high 7.1 innings. Fox scattered eight hits and allowed just one earned run while striking out three.
Saint Vincent opened the scoring with an RBI double by Billy Perroz in the top of the first inning. However, the lead was short-lived for the Bearcats.
Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn Trafford) opened the bottom of the frame with single and scored a batter later when
Trevor Dean (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) crushed a two-run home run to give W&J a 2-1 advantage. W&J later tacked on a third run when
Jacob LaDuca (Clarence, N.Y./Canisius) produced an RBI groundout to make it 3-1.
Dean helped W&J add to its lead with a two-run single in the bottom of the second inning. The two-run single gave Dean four RBI and W&J a 5-1 advantage.
W&J added three more runs in the fourth inning.
Nolan Lutz (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette) singled home Horvat to make it 6-1. LaDuca then made it 8-1 with a two-run bloop double down the right field line by LaDuca. Lutz tacked on an RBI single to score
Logan Scheider (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny) in the fifth inning, which made it 9-1 Presidents.
Saint Vincent scored single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to cut the deficit to 9-3.
LaDuca tacked on a two-run RBI single and
Luke Virag (New Kensington, Pa./Burrell) smacked an RBI triple to stretch the lead to 12-3 as the game entered the ninth.
Lutz finished with four hits and three runs scored Saturday to pace the offensive efforts. Horvat finished with three hits and three runs scored. LaDuca had two hits and five RBI while Dean had two hits and four RBI.
LaDuca earned PAC Most Outstanding Player honors after finishing the weekend with seven hits and nine RBI in 16 at bats. His walk-off home run in Friday's winner's bracket final propelled the Presidents into Saturday's title round. Joining LaDuca on the All-Tournament Team was Dean, Fox and Horvat.
W&J earns the PAC's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Championship. The Presidents will compete in the NCAAs for a 10th time in program history.
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.
