Dezenzo, W&J baseball aim to complete bouncebacks
Washington & Jefferson has been the dominant baseball program in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference for two decades. The Presidents, under veteran head coach Jeff Mountain, have won eight conference tournament championships since 2013, and 12 in the last 20 seasons.
Last year, however, was a blip on the radar. Grove City won the PAC title, beating Westminster in the finals. Nothing seemed to go as planned in 2025 for the Presidents, and nobody was a better example of that than hard-hitting Josh Dezenzo. The first baseman/outfielder had all the qualities of a standout player ever since he arrived on campus as a second baseman in the fall of 2023 from his hometown of Alliance, Ohio, which is in the back yard of Mount Union.
“Josh is a guy who had Division II schools interested in him, but he determined early that he wanted to get away (from home) a little bit and was looking at Division III,” Mountain recalled. “He visited us early in his senior year and committed.”
Dezenzo batted a staggering .455 in a part-time role as a sophomore in 2024. A big 2025 season was expected for Dezenzo, who would move into a full-time role.
Proving that baseball isn’t a game that is easy to predict, Dezenzo saw his batting average drop to a mere .217, though he did hit eight home runs.
This year, Dezenzo has rebounded in spectacular fashion. And W&J has followed his lead.
Dezenzo is batting .445 through 31 games and he’s already tied the program’s single-season record for doubles with 19. He has eight home runs and an on-base percentage of .542, which is off the charts, even in college baseball.
“Last year, Josh battled through injuries but couldn’t get anything going,” Mountain said. “His sophomore year was unbelievable, so last year was just an outlier.
“He has always had a good attitude. He’s quiet by nature. He has a good sense of humor and a good wit about him. He’s probably our leader on the offensive side. After what he did as a sophomore, he probably felt some pressure last year to live up to what he did.”
Dezenzo and W&J are living up to expectations this year. The Presidents are currently in first place in the PAC at 13-3 in the conference and 24-7 overall. They have a one-game lead over both Westminster and Allegheny. W&J has three PAC doubleheaders remaining, all against teams that are .500 or worse in the conference. Westminster still has a series against Allegheny to play.
Regardless of who gains the top seed for the six-team PAC tournament May 6-9, it will be played at Ross Memorial Park because it has artificial turf and lights, two must-haves for a six-team double-elimination tournament that will be played over four days.
“This has been an unusual season in that we haven’t found ourselves in many close games, and the ones we’ve had, we haven’t always handled them the right way,” Mountain admitted. “But this is a different feeling from last year. … The competitive level is up. Guys don’t take days off. This is a fun group to work with. They’ve accepted challenges. They play hard and they practice hard.”
Dezenzo knows how to play hard. He comes from a baseball-oriented family. His brother, Zach, had a standout career as an infielder at Ohio State and was drafted by the Houston Astros. He made his major league debut in 2024.
Josh Dezenzo has brought a professional-like mentality to his game. His worth ethic is his calling card and it has rubbed off on the Presidents’ hitters, who have a .337 team batting average and average 9.9 runs per game.
“Hitting is our calling card,” Mountain said. “We’re still trying to find out about our pitchers. We’ve been pretty good at the top (of the rotation) and at the back end of the bullpen. We have capable guys in the middle.”
W&J started a stretch of nine games in seven days on Monday, beating Pitt-Greensburg, 15-2. The Presidents will play nonconference games against ranked opponents Baldwin Wallace and Mount Union during the stretch.