Thomas More outlasts W&J to win PAC tournment, end respected conference rivalry
Courtesy W&J athletics
Dante Dalesandro dives back into first base during Saturday’s game against Thomas More.
Courtesy W&J athletics
Clay Martin of W&J prepares to deliver a pitch Saturday against Thomas More.
Consider it a parting gift to the entire Presidents’ Athletic Conference.
A pretty fitting one at that.
Playing five of the last six years for the conference title, exchanging hands on the PAC baseball championship trophy and the automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship tournament in each of those seasons, the Thomas More College baseball team was able to get the final laugh against Washington & Jefferson College before leaving the conference for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
Pushed to the brink of a winner-take-all game, the Saints responded with a three-run third inning, scored insurance runs in the following three frames and held off a last-gasp rally from top-seeded W&J to defeat the Presidents, 7-5, Saturday evening at Ross Memorial Park.
It was the first time in five attempts Thomas More (24-18) defeated the Presidents this season, resulting in the Saints fifth PAC title.
“In five times you have to win once, right?” said Thomas More coach Jeff Hetzer. “From where we started off at 5-10 to where we are now, it is pretty surreal. You do it against the best team, a class act, it couldn’t have been a better way to end our run (in the PAC).”
Thomas More broke a 1-1 tie and took the lead in the third, which it held for the remainder of the game, when Joshua Boeckmann hit a line-drive single to left field to score Sean Lawrence. The Saints extended that advantage on the next batter as Jacob Whitford laced a two-run triple past the diving glove of W&J first baseman Mark Merlino to lead 4-1.
“It was really big. This group hasn’t had any success (against W&J),” Hetzer said of the previous four meetings where Thomas More had never held a multi-run lead after an inning.
“We have had success over the years, winning a championship in 2010, 2014 and 2016. But this group hasn’t had success lately. To get the monkey off the back is such a great feeling. You knew W&J was going to keep coming at us.”
The much-needed insurance runs for the Saints, scoring one run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, gave them a 7-2 lead.
It also was enough to hold off a seventh inning rally from W&J (28-16-1) as a Mullen Socha RBI double and two-run home run from Merlino trimmed the Presidents’ deficit to two runs, 7-5.
“They scored in four straight innings, and even though we were able to get back into striking distance, it was tough because they added on,” said W&J coach Jeff Mountain. “I think it’s tough to beat a team of that caliber five times and today kind of showed it. We didn’t lose that. They beat us.”
Washington & Jefferson forced the winner-take-all championship by defeating the Saints, 8-7, in the opening game of the day.
The Presidents led 5-1 after four innings but surrendered the lead when Thomas More’s Tyler Smith hit a line drive up the middle to end a five-run fifth and take a 6-5 lead.
The top two seeds traded runs until W&J’s Dan Trettel was hit by a pitch to start the bottom half of the seventh, eventually scoring the game-winning run when the Saints conceded the score in order to turn a double play.
Presidents’ junior reliever Clay Martin, a Canon-McMillan High School graduate, retired Thomas More in order the final two innings to secure the win. Martin pitched 3? innings in relief, surrendering one run on one hit – a solo home run from Sam Hauer that tied the game 7-7 in the seventh – to earn the win.
Trettel went 3-for-3 and scored twice to lead W&J. Dante Dalesandro had a pair of hits and two RBI as the Presidents defeated Thomas More by one run for the second time this season.
“We are going to miss (Thomas More),” Mountain said. “It’s been a long rivalry, a great rivalry and a clean rivalry. It’s tough it didn’t go our way in the end. That’s a testament to them. They beat us opposed to us just losing it, and I can definitely live with that.”