Two-out magic keys W&J’s win over Westminster
Two-out magic was in the air Thursday afternoon at Ross Memorial Park as Washington & Jefferson scored seven runs with two down for an 8-4 victory over Westminster in the first game of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference baseball tournament.
The Presidents (29-12) will play Grove City (30-9) today at noon in the winners’ bracket.
The Titans (20-19) face Saint Vincent (20-17) at 3 p.m. The winner meets the loser of the W&J-Grove City game at 6.
“We feel we can be more efficient and play a little bit better, but we will take it,” W&J coach Jeff Mountain said. “We did get some two-out hits, but we left 14 runners on base. We feel like we are playing really well at the right time, definitely from an offensive standpoint.”
Westminster jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Carter Chinn’s solo home run to right field two batters into the game.
The Presidents responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 advantage. Nolan Lutz was hit-by-pitch, Evan Sante singled and Lutz scored on Scout Zaas’ base hit to center field. Sante scored on Jacob LaDuca’s single up the middle.
The Titans scored two runs in the second for a 3-2 lead. Braeden Campbell and Jake Dockum singled before Brandon Cooper walked to load the bases with nobody out. Campbell scored on Jake Dockum’s sacrifice fly to right, and with two outs, Tomko raced home on Logan Murgenovich’s base hit to right.
W&J regained a one-run advantage in the bottom of the inning after Logan Scheider singled to center and scored on an error after Lutz singled to center. Lutz scored on a wild pitch for a 4-3 W&J lead heading into the third.
“Kudos to W&J, they stayed with it,” Westminster coach Patrick Riley said. “Their pitcher settled in. I think we had an opportunity there were we could have pushed more momentum early but it didn’t happen. Defensively, we just didn’t play well. There was a pretty rough outing there, defensively, and you are not going to win any playoff games doing that, so we got to clean that up.”
The Presidents increased their lead to 5-3 in the third when LaDuca scored on Josh Dezenzo’s double to left. LaDuca reached base on an infield single. Dezenzo had three of W&J’s 14 hits.
Presidents starting pitcher Tyler Horvat started to get into a groove in the fourth as he sent Westminster down in order. Horvat pitched perfect innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh before a hit-by-pitch on Matthew Randza in the eighth broke the streak of outs at 15.
“Tyler made an adjustment,” Mountain said. “From innings three to seven, we threw two non-fastballs the whole time. They were getting a lot of hits on soft stuff early on, so we had to get off of that.
“We just went to the fastball and said, ‘Here it is, hit it,’ and fortunately, they couldn’t. He settled in because we just realized and just pitched a little smarter. Tyler is definitely our ace pitcher.”
Horvat allowed back-to-back singles before Mountain handed the ball to Ethan Boring, who forced Tomko to fly out to right, but Randza scored to cut the deficit to 8-4. Boring induced a popup to second to end the inning.
Horvat, a senior who improved his season record to 11-2, yielded four earned runs on eight hits in 7 1/3 innings. He struck out two and walked one. The Penn-Trafford graduate threw 125 pitches. Horvat earned his 29th career win, which is a program record.
“He (Horvat) got tired,” Mountain said. “I left him in too long. He has thrown a lot this year and been a workhouse. It was hard to take him out, but just trying to steal some outs at the end.”
The Titans had runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth before Mountain brought in Dante DiMatteo to record a strikeout for his four save of the season, and 14th of his career, which is a W&J record.
“Dante came in as an outfielder-pitcher, but he has settled in nicely as our closer,” Mountain said. “We have had some injuries to our pitching staff, so I am not sure who will start for us tomorrow, but we will be ready to go.”
The Presidents scored one run in the fourth when Sante tripled and scored on Zaas’ double; and added two in the seventh, as Scheider walked and crossed home plate after Lutz reached on an error. Lutz scored on Sante’s doubled to center.
In Thursday’s second game, Mally Kilbane’s ground-rule double scored Like Vittone for the game-winning run for Grove City. Vittone reached on an error and Peters Township graduate Nick Sampson followed with a single. Sampson had two hits and started in center field.
Kilbane hit a solo home run in the seventh, and Markus Williams and C.J. Saylor scored on Shane Cato’s single through the right side, as the Wolverines rallied from a 5-2 deficit.