W&J to host PAC baseball tourney
Washington & Jefferson’s Jeff Mountain, like all coaches in college and major league baseball, is required to wear a batting helmet when coaching the bases during a game.
Washington & Jefferson has earned the top seed and hosting rights for the Presidents’ Athletic Conference baseball tournament.
The league’s four-team, double-elimination tournament will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14 at Ross Memorial Park.
W&J (32-8, 25-2 PAC) is ranked No. 25 in the latest Collegiate Baseball/American Baseball Coaches Association Division III Poll and receiving votes in the latest D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 25. The Presidents are No. 5 in Region VII.
This is W&J’s fifth-straight year serving as the league’s tournament host. The Presidents, led by 20th-year head coach Jeff Mountain, are making their 13th-straight tournament appearance. W&J won its 13th PAC title in 2021.
Also earning spots in the tournament are No. 2 Saint Vincent (24-12, 20-6 PAC), No. 3 Grove City (27-12, 18-8) and No. 4 Westminster (22-17, 17-10).
In the tournament’s opening round Thursday, Westminster will play Washington & Jefferson at 1 p.m. Saint Vincent faces Grove City at 4 p.m.
The PAC tournament winner will earn the conference’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. Selections for the Division III tournament will be announced May 16 with regional preliminary round play slated for Friday-Monday, May 20-22.