Vento, two-out offense power W&J to another win in D-III regional

Washington & Jefferson’s Nick Vento cracked a wry smile immediately after he made solid contact with a second-inning pitch.
As the ball continued flying, eventually exiting over the right-field wall for an opposite-field grand slam, his smile couldn’t be contained.
Not only did Vento’s bomb give the Presidents a four-run lead and break a school record for the most RBI by a player in a career, it also gave W&J a lead it would fail to surrender as it went on to defeat Earlham, 15-6, in a NCAA Division III Mideast Regional baseball game late Friday night at Ross Memorial Park.
W&J (36-10) will play either DePauw or Keystone at 7:45 p.m. today in the winner’s bracket final of the double-elimination tournament. The DePauw-Keystone game was scheduled to be played Friday night following the W&J-Earlham contest but rain forced it to be rescheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday morning.
“Records are something that are awesome when you are looking back at games 20 years from now,” Vento said. “Right now, in the moment, I don’t think about any record. I’m just out there fighting for my team. Being a senior leader, the guys kind of thrive off of that energy. Having a hit like that, it turned the game around, but it also got all the bats hot behind me.”
The W&J offense followed Vento’s lead and 4-for-6 seven-RBI night – that’s a record 160 RBI for his career – by scoring all of its 15 runs with two outs.
The Presidents also weathered two delays and a swift comeback attempt from Earlham. A two-run homer by Nate Lynch and another run off an error cut the deficit to 7-6 in the fifth inning.
“There was a lot of ebbs and flows to that game,” W&J coach Jeff Mountain said. “They pressured us and made us uncomfortable.”
The W&J lead was maintained after bringing in freshman pitcher Ben Marsico in the fourth inning and getting some much-needed insurance runs prior to a rain delay of one hour and 40 minutes in the eighth inning.
Marsico didn’t allow the dangerous Earlham offense to score and scattered only two hits over four innings.
Another Vento hit, a two-run single to left centerfield in the top of the sixth inning, scored another run on an Earlham error, giving the Presidents an 11-6 lead.
“I thought (Marsico) was the first guy that went out there on the mound and slowed the game down,” Mountain said. “He let the game come to him. He threw multiple pitches for strikes. He’s a freshman but ages don’t matter now. Given the situation, you never know how guys are going to respond when you sit down for a while.
“It’s strange that you play all these games and it becomes a war of attrition here. It’s never over. All these teams are here for a reason and it’s because they never quit. Coming out of the rain delay with a 15-6 lead was definitely big.”
Collecting only one hit after a big fifth inning, Earlham (30-13) was led by Nate Lynch and Cody Krumlauf, who combined for six hits.
Presidents leadoff hitter Adam LaRue had four hits, drove in two runs and scored three times. Mark Merlino had three hits for W&J’s two-out-lighting attack.
“Those are breaks you need, and plays you need, when you get to the next level,” Mountain said of the two-out run production. “With the exception of the sixth inning, they didn’t give us anything. When you’re scoring the runs we’ve been able to the first two days of the regional, you put yourself in a good position to win. We’re happy to be in the position we’re in but there is more work ahead.”