Florida trip did the trick for W&J baseball

Normally, a trip to the warm climates of Florida brings out the best in a college baseball team anxious to shake off the icicles of a Western Pennsylvania winter.
That’s not exactly what happened when Washington & Jefferson College’s baseball team left for a seven-game excursion that included stops in Lakeland, Auburndale and Winter Haven.
It got a little colder.
The Presidents stumbled to a 3-4 record, but they played some pretty strong teams, including Bradley, a Division I program, and Rowan, which would go on to win the New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament title.
Panic could have set in, but it didn’t. The Presidents went on a 24-7 tear – including an eight-game winning streak to end the regular season – and enter Thursday’s Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament at Ross Memorial Park as the No. 1 seed.
“That trip was not too good from a results standpoint,” said W&J head coach Jeff Mountain. “Part of it was that we were on the radar a little bit because of our success from last season, part of it was that we played some good teams, and part of it was that we ran into some No. 1 and 2 pitchers.”
The four teams in the PAC double-elimination tournament are each hoping to play well enough to keep their seasons alive with an invitation to the NCAA Division III tournament. W&J plays fourth-seeded Saint Vincent (14-10, 18-18) at 6 p.m. in Thursday’s first round. Thomas More (17-7, 27-12) takes on Thiel (17-7, 24-16) at 3 p.m.
W&J won the PAC title for the second straight season and seventh time in the last nine years last season, and Mountain is three wins away from 300 in his coaching career.
A nice turnaround from a sluggish start.
“That trip helped us,” Mountain said. “We learned the level we had to get to.”
Sounds simple, but teams change from season to season. The Presidents only lost four starters from last year’s PAC runner-up and NCAA qualifier, but adjustments had to be made.
“Last year, was the best team chemistry we had,” said Mountain of the team that went three games into the Division III tournament before being eliminated by eventual national champion Marietta. That W&J team set a school record with 36 wins.
“We’re not a power-laden team. We have to hit-and-run, move people along the bases. Last year, our lineup was set. This year, it just took us some time to get there.”
The Presidents have used the right arm of starting pitcher Eddie Nogay to punctuate a run at midseason that produced 11 wins in 13 games. Nogay is 9-1 with four complete games and a 3.12 ERA. He has 57 strikeouts in 67 innings, and teams are hitting just .227 against him.
D.J. Michalski, a graduate of Canon-McMillan, has a .409 batting average with 29 runs in 29 games. He missed nine games with assorted injuries and W&J felt his absence, dropping back-to-back doubleheaders to Thiel and Thomas More with him out of the lineup.
“He’s had a really good year,” Mountain said. “He’s a prototypical No. 2 hitter. He’s a “Moneyball” player (with an on-base percentage of .518).”
Right fielder Josh Staniscia is arguably the team’s best player with a .394 batting average and a team-high 35 runs. Second baseman Scott Liller is a great contact hitter – only seven strikeouts in 125 at-bats – and has a .360 average.
“Last year, Scott got an opportunity and never looked back,” said Mountain. “He doesn’t have the best swing or the best arm, but he gets things done. He’s been really solid and steady for us.”
Mountain is looking for a better start to the tournament than last year, when W&J fell to Saint Vincent in the first round and battled back through the consolation bracket to reach the finals.
“This is wide open,” Mountain said. “Any of the four teams can win it. It’s not just the best team wins, but the ones that get the breaks. Any of the four can do it.”
A loss to Kutztown in the PSAC championship game did not damage the status of the California University softball team for the NCAA Division II playoffs.
The Vulcans not only received a bid, but were named top seed in the Atlantic Region Monday. The four-team event gets under way Friday and ends Sunday.
This will be Cal’s sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament and ninth in the last 11 seasons. Cal has a 48-41 record in 21 appearances and won back-to-back national titles in 1997 and 1998.
Cal plays eighth-seed Chowan, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Champion, Friday with the time to be determined. Fourth-seeded West Chester (34-19) will play fifth-seeded Lock Haven (28-14).
In the oter Atlantic Region, host Shippensburg (31-11), the second seed, takes on seventh-seed Bloomsburg (30-17) in the first round. West Virginia State (41-12), the WVIAC champion, plays Kutztown (29-21).
The winner of the double-elimination tournaments will advance to the NCAA Super Regionals and play a best-of-3 series from May 17-18 at the site of the highest remaining seed.
California University enters the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament as the No. 1 seed from the West. The Vulcans (15-9, 33-15) will play West Chester (12-12, 22-23-1), the fourth seed in the East, in a first-round game Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. at Point Stadium in Johnstown.
If successful, Cal plays the winner of the game between Mercyhurst (15-9, 30-18) and Kutztown (15-9, 31-14), which begins at 9:30 a.m.
The four-day, double-elimination event ends Saturday.