Perry pitches Washington & Jefferson past Bethany
For the first 16 innings of Washington & Jefferson’s games in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference baseball tournament, the host team’s relief pitchers weren’t exactly busy. The W&J relievers went through bags of sunflower seeds, did some stretching and watched the Presidents’ starting pitchers dominate opposing hitters. The bullpen simply wasn’t needed.
One day after Brendan Cruz tossed a complete game in W&J’s win over Grove City, senior Chase Perry threw seven stellar innings as W&J defeated Bethany 10-1 on Thursday night at Ross Memorial Park.
Perry (2-1), who entered the game with only one career win and had yielded seven runs in 2.1 innings to Bethany last weekend, looked like a staff ace against the Bison this time. He allowed only five hits, two walks and one run while throwing a season-high 103 pitches and keeping the bullpen mostly inactive.
“Last week, when he faced Bethany, our starting pitcher got hurt after three batters and Chase was thrown into a tough situation,” W&J head coach Jeff Mountain said. “When he’s started games, Chase has been very good. … I’m happy for him. He’s been through some tough things, he’s had a couple of arm injuries. I feel really good about his performance.”
Thomas McLaren, the first W&J reliever used in the tournament, pitched the final two innings.
Jack Anderson led the W&J hitters with three RBI and had two of W&J’s five sacrifice flies. The five sac flies tied an NCAA D-III record for the most in one game.
Paddy Hernjak added four hits, including two infield singles.
The win sends W&J (30-11) into the winners’ bracket final of the double-elimination tournament today against sixth-seeded Chatham at 2:30 p.m. Bethany (26-16) will play an elimination game at 11 a.m. against Grove City.
Most importantly, W&J’s bullpen is well-rested because of the performances by Cruz and Perry.
“We were hoping to get five innings out of Chase,” Mountain admitted. “We know we’ll have to use our bullpen in the upcoming games and we’re confident in those guys.”
The Presidents jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The four runs came on only two hits as W&J took advantage of wildness by Bethany starter Marco Gonzalez, who walked three batters, hit another and threw 10 consecutive balls at one point.
Keegan Carr led off the game with a single, Josh Dezenzo was hit with a high and tight pitch and Gonzalez walked Luke Alvarez and Andrew Miko on four points each, forcing in the game’s first run. Jack Anderson made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly, and a wild pitch allowed Alvarez to score. Another sac fly, by Seth Rosenfeld, made it 4-0.
More wildness by Gonzalez helped W&J move out to a 5-0 lead in the third. Paddy Hernjak had a two-out single and Teddy Platt and Keegan Carr drew walks to load the bases. Dezenzo was then hit by a pitch for the second time in three innings, forcing home Hernjak.
Gonzalez hit Dezenzo with a pitch for the third time, leading off the sixth inning. It was the fourth time Gonzalez hit Dezenzo in the last six days, dating back to the final series of the regular season.
Alvarez followed with a four-pitch walk and Miko put down a bunt single to load the bases. Consecutive sacrifice flies by Anderson and Zac Stern
pushed the W&J lead to 7-1.
Gonzalez went six innings, allowing six hits and seven runs. He walked seven, hit four and struck out five.
Anderson had an RBI single in the eighth that stretched W&J’s lead to 8-1 and the Presidents scored twice in the ninth.
Of W&J’s 10 runs, six reached base via either bases on balls or hit by pitches.
Chatham, 9-6
Nolan Boehm and Cooper Baxter homered, Matt Bamford threw a 143-pitch complete game and sixth-seeded Chatham eliminated third-seeded Allegheny, 9-6.
Chatham, which is 2-0 in the tournament, broke a 3-3 tie by scoring three times in the fifth inning and never trailed in the game.
Bamford allowed seven hits, including home runs by Connor Kunkle and Tyler Skaggs. He walked three and struck out 12, one shy of his season high.
The Cougars (30-12) have used only two pitchers in two games.
Grove City, 12-1
Noah Mackie pitched a complete game, David Chandler had four hits and fifth-seeded Grove City belted three home runs en route to a 12-1 victory over top-seeded Westminster in an elimination game.
Dan Luko, Caleb Backos and Nick Remish homered for Grove City (20-17), which scored four runs in the first inning. Backos finished with three RBI.
Mackie scattered seven hits and struck out five.
Westminster falls to 28-12. The Titans left nine runners on base after stranding 11 in a loss to Chatham on Wednesday.