May 8, 2025 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

History tells us that the Presidents’ Athletic Conference baseball tournament could have been renamed the Washington & Jefferson Invitational. That’s what the tournament had become over the past half dozen years as the Presidents developed into an NCAA Division III powerhouse.

In each of the last five tournaments, W&J rolled through every opponent, in every game, en route to a conference championship. When the Presidents needed a clutch hit from its lineup, or a timely out from the pitching staff, or a stellar defensive play, they seemed to always find a way to make those happen.

That’s why W&J won each of the last five PAC championships and had won 17 consecutive games in the tournament.

All good things, however, must come to an end.

W&J suffered its first PAC tournament loss since before the pandemic when Westminster stunned the Presidents 5-4 Thursday on the second day of this year’s double-elimination event at Ross Memorial Park.

It was W&J’s first setback in the PAC tournament since losing to Thomas More in the 2018 finals.

“Give credit to Westminster,” W&J coach Jeff Mountain said. “We had a chance to take control of the game in the middle innings and didn’t. We hit some balls hard, but … I thought Westminster could be a sleeper in this tournament because its pitching is a challenge.”

There were no strange plays or controversial calls that decided this one, which often happens when a lengthy winning streak comes to an end. Westminster simply generated one more run than W&J. The fifth-seeded Titans (17-21) trailed 4-2 in the fifth inning but scored the game’s final three runs.

Westminster broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh when Quinton Marquis drew a bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 pitch, forcing in Parker Lyons with what turned out to be the winning run. Relief pitcher Ryan Gibbons, who entered the game with a 6.04 ERA, threw four shutout innings to nail down the win.

“This was a team effort across the board,” Westminster coach Patrick Riley said. “(Ryan) Gibbons pitched his butt off at the end of the game. We got guys on base, Chase Tomko had a big game and we did a lot of good things.”

The difference between the teams in this game was only a few inches. More precisely, the inches that separated the glove of W&J center fielder Zac Stern and the baseball in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With W&J leading 4-2 and a Westminster runner on first base with one out, Tomko hit a fly ball into the right centerfield gap. Stern, on a full-out sprint, tried to run down the ball. He made a diving attempt at a catch but the ball was just out of his reach and bounced toward the wall. Tomko ended up with an RBI triple that made the score 4-3. Two batters later, Westminster’s Andrew Wolf singled home Tomko to tie the game.

Westminster went ahead in the seventh against W&J reliever Brendan Cruz. Braeden Campbell opened the inning with an infield single and Lyons followed with a single. They advanced on a bunt by Logan Murgenovich. Chris Davis was then intentionally walked to load the bases and bring up Tomko, who bounced into a fielder’s choice with Campbell being thrown out at home plate by third baseman Ben Schuler. Marquis, however, walked, forcing in the go-ahead run.

Gibbons held W&J to only one hit over the final four innings.

The loss doesn’t eliminate W&J (27-14) but it will make the Presidents’ path to the championship difficult, especially with the tournament expanded from four to six teams. There are five teams still alive.

W&J will play Allegheny (22-17) at 11 a.m. today in an elimination game. Westminster, which lost its opener to Grove City, will play Saint Vincent at 2:30 p.m. in another elimination game. Saint Vincent overcame a 10-4 deficit to knock out Thiel 15-12 in 10 innings in Thursday’s opening game.

“In a double-elimination tournament, a four-team field is a lot easier to come back from a loss in,” Mountain said. “What bothers me is our mentality has been off for a while. We’re a free-wheeling team but recently we’ve been getting in difficult spots and playing tight for some reason. It’s a different vibe. We have to find a way to flip the script.”