May 12, 2022 5 min read

Washington & Jefferson wouldn’t be the perennial baseball king of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference – nine tournament championships in nearly 20 seasons under coach Jeff Mountain – if it didn’t know how to take and overcome a so-called punch in the mouth.

The top-seeded Presidents took plenty of those – along with punches to the gut, kidney, back, etc. – in the first game of the PAC tournament Tuesday afternoon against No. 4 Westminster at Ross Memorial Park.

The Presidents fell behind 5-1 early and coughed up two leads in the last two innings. They were one out away from victory when a two-run home run by Westminster’s Carter Chinn gave the Titans the lead and turned the game on its axis.

But champions know how to punch back, and the reigning titleholders kept plugging away.

W&J tied the score in the bottom of the ninth on a single by Tyler Horvat. In the 11th, the Presidents won it, 10-9, on another Horvat single.

“We knew we were up against it, and we knew it’d be tough,” Mountain said. “We have to battle, and we knew we would.”

For Horvat, who was also W&J’s starting pitcher, the walkoff hit ended what was a rollercoaster of an afternoon on a positive note.

Horvat went six innings and gave up six runs – only two earned – but the play that won it was his hit off Westminster’s Timothy Lewis.

“The first two pitches were sliders,” Horvat said. “It seemed like they weren’t going to throw me a fastball, so I was sitting on a slider. He just left it up a little and I was fortunate to put a good swing on it.”

On the mound, Horvat got through the first inning in order.

The second inning wasn’t so smooth.

With a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Roman Samson single, Horvat put runners at the corners with one out with Matt Costello at the plate. Costello singled home James Diamond to tie the score.

The Presidents (33-8) almost got out of the inning with a tie. With the bases loaded and still one out, Braeden Campbell hit a ground ball to third baseman Nate Rush. Rush stepped on the bag and threw to first to try to complete a double play. The ball was mishandled by first baseman Joe Lehner, however, and Diamond scored to give the Titans what would be their first of three leads.

Westminster (22-18) took advantage of the error by adding three runs to go up 5-1, sending nine men to the plate.

“The wheels kind of came off in that inning,” Mountain said. “We could have been out of it, probably, with a one spot. To Westminster’s credit, we made a mistake and they capitalized and got four extra runs out of it. That’s what good teams do.”

Horvat settled down after the second, giving up just one run over his last four innings, which allowed himself and the rest of the offense to chip away at a four-run deficit.

The Presidents got one back in the second on Horvat’s fielder’s choice. W&J then tied the game with three runs in the fourth. A solo home run by No. 8 hitter Trevor Dean made it 5-3. Later in the inning, the Presidents got a two-run single from Peter Kalinski.

The Titans took the lead in the sixth when Campbell hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, bringing home Brandon Cooper for the go-ahead run.

W&J answered with two runs in the seventh, both driven in on a two-out triple by No. 9 hitter Jason Gregovits.

Gregovits went 2-for-4 with two triples, two RBI and two runs. Dean went 3-for-6 with two runs and an RBI. Mountain’s Nos. 8 and 9 hitters combined to go 5-for-10 with three RBI and three runs, displaying the depth that’s helped W&J to 33 wins thus far.

The Presidents were on the wrong end of two-out lightning in the next half-inning. With a runner on second, pinch-hitter Sean Davis singled to make it 7-7.

In the bottom of the eighth, freshman Jacob LaDuca singled home Samson – again, with two outs – for the go-ahead run, and it looked like that would go down as the winning hit.

Carter Chinn, however, had over ideas. With two outs and one on, the Westminster right fielder sent a 1-2 Dante DiMatteo pitch over the wall to give the Titans a 9-8 lead.

Again the Presidents didn’t quit. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Gregovits hit his second triple and came home on Horvat’s first big-time single.

Westminster threatened in the 10th. The Titans put runners on first and third for Campbell with one out.

Campbell flew out to left fielder Tony Tamilia and James Diamond broke from third base. Tamilia’s throw to the plate was on the money and Kalinski, the catcher, made the tag to keep the game tied.

Cameron Hayman, who pitched a scoreless 11th, got the win for his first decision of the season.

With the tournament being double-elimination, Westminster is still alive. The Titans will face St. Vincent (24-13) today at 3 p.m. in an elimination game.

W&J will take on Grove City (28-12), an 8-7 winner over Saint Vincent, at noon.