May 5, 2026 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

The Presidents’ Athletic Conference baseball tournament is back again in Washington, and this year’s event that begins at noon today at Ross Memorial Park has a different feel, especially for the host team.

For the first time since the 2019 tournament, Washington & Jefferson is not the defending champion. That happens to be Grove City.

And the Presidents, though they are the host team, they are not the top seed. That’s Westminster.

W&J and Westminster both finished the regular season with a 17-5 record in conference play, but the Titans earned the top seed for the tournament by sweeping a doubleheader from the Presidents, 4-0 and 4-3 in 11 innings on April 8 in New Wilmington. They were the only games matching the Titans and Presidents.

The starting times for today’s games have been moved back an hour from the original schedule because of expected rain in the morning. The six-team double-elimination tournament begins with Westminster (17-5, 28-10) playing sixth-seeded Chatham (13-9, 28-11). W&J (17-5, 28-11), the No. 2 seed, will make its tournament debut at 3:30 p.m. against the defending champion, fifth-seeded Grove City (14-8, 19-16). The final game of the first day (7 p.m.) matches third-seeded Allegheny (16-6, 26-14) and Bethany (14-8, 25-15), the fourth seed.

“Five teams with 25 wins, the sixth team is 28-11, that’s unheard of in our league,” W&J coach Jeff Mountain said. “It’s deep. Some young coaches have built programs and worked at it like crazy. The transfer portal has helped some teams, too, and changed things.”

Play will continue through Saturday’s championship round.

If W&J is to win the tournament and gain the PAC’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament, then two players who will likely play key roles will be senior catcher/pitcher Luke Alvarez and junior pitcher Brendan Cruz.

Alvarez, who played his high school ball in the WPIAL at Elizabeth Forward, is having a breakout season with the bat. His performance at the plate in April was remarkable. In 16 games, he went 19-for-45 with 11 home runs and 25 RBI. That’s right, 11 of his 19 hits left the ballpark.

And he kept it going last weekend in two games against Bethany when he hit three home runs, including a grand slam, and drove in 10 runs.

For the season, Alvarez is batting .403 with 14 home runs and 36 RBI. The latter number is tied for the team lead with Josh Dezenzo. Alvarez’s slugging percentage is an off-the-charts 1.042.

And he doubles as W&J’s closer. He has 19 strikeouts and three saves. Opponents are batting only .170 against Alvarez.

“Nobody saw this kind of season coming,” Mountain said about Alvarez. “We had been rotating three catchers all year and he might have been No. 3 to start. Part of that is because we lean on him so much on the mound. There is a balance you need when you’re a pitcher and a catcher. And he’s had some injury issues.

“But he’s always had the power potential. He’s gotten bigger and stronger and worked at it. And he’s definitely more confident.”

W&J’s opponents haven’t done any better hitting against Cruz, who has a 9-0 record and 0.92 ERA in 59 innings. Hitters have a .145 batting average against Cruz. The Chartiers Valley graduate has a 1.89 career ERA, which is the second lowest among pitchers in all NCAA divisions.

Grove City has a .304 team batting average and produced a winning record despite a 7.30 team ERA.

Westminster had the top pitching staff in the PAC this season with a 3.22 ERA. The Titans threw five shutouts and issued the fewest walks (111, 2.92 per game).

Allegheny has one of the best hitters in the league in outfielder Ryan Cochran, who was second in batting average (.428) and tied Alvarez for the conference lead in home runs.

Bethany led the PAC in stolen bases and was second in walks drawn. The Bison also have some momentum after splitting a two-game series with W&J. Bethany’s win cost the Presidents the No. 1 seed.

This will be Chatham’s first appearance in the PAC tournament. Cougars pitcher Matt Bamford (8-3, 3.56), a Belle Vernon graduate, led the PAC in strikeouts (82).

“This tournament is truly wide open,” Mountain admitted. “Nothing would surprise me.”