BOX SCORE VS. WESTMINSTER

BOX SCORE VS. W&J

WASHINGTON, Pa. (May 11) - The Bearcats dropped the day's first game to second-seeded Westminster, 5-3, before being eliminated by top-seeded Washington & Jefferson, 10-4, in 2012 Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament action at Ross Memorial Park.

With the losses, the Saint Vincent baseball team ends the 2012 campaign with a 24-19 record, just three wins shy of the single-season school record set in 2003. Westminster and W&J advance to Saturday's PAC Championship round, with the Presidents needing to down the Titans twice to earn the league title.

SVC struck first against Westminster as senior Zack Galasso tripled home sophomore AJ Kavinsky in the bottom of the first inning. The Bearcats added a run in the bottom of the fourth inning after a Westminster solo homer tied the game, 1-1, in the top of the fourth. Senior Mike Hustava reached on a fielding error that brought home classmate Erik Fichter to give SVC the lead back, 2-1.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Titans broke open the game with four runs on four hits and two Bearcat errors to take a 5-2 lead.

The Bearcats cut the lead to 5-3 with a run in the top of the eighth inning. Junior Brad Burkardt led off with an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error. After moving to third base on a Galasso ground out Burkardt scored on a sacrifice fly by Fichter.

Junior Gary Gerhardt suffered the loss to finish the season with a 2-6 record. He went 7.0-plus innings, surrendering six hits and five runs (two earned) while striking out a season-best eight batters and walking three.

Against W&J, the Presidents opened up a 6-0 lead with two runs in the second, one run in the fourth and three runs in the top of the sixth inning before SVC rallied with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Back-to-back walks to Kavinsky and sophomore Jordan Britcher started the inning before both advanced a base on a balk. Burkardt followed with the third walk of the inning before Galasso singled to center field, 6-1. Following a Presidents' pitching change, Fichter delivered an RBI single and the bases remained loaded with none out. Junior Grant Krally was then hit by a pitch before junior Andrew Kozusko grounded into a double play that Galasso scored on, 6-4.

W&J responded with one run in the seventh and three runs in the eighth inning to post the final margin, 10-4.

Senior Jeremy Mains took the loss, pitching 5.0-plus inning and allowing eight hits and five runs (two earned) to fall to 4-5 on the year. Sophomore Alex Kozusko, who pitched in both games to break the single-season school record with 18 appearances on the year, tossed 1.0 inning of relief while senior Paul Kubeja and Fichter combined to pitch the final 3.0 innings.

NOTES: The games marked the final contests in the career of 10 Bearcat seniors: Mike Tedesco, Jack Shaffer, Kubeja, Steve Bayko, Galasso, Fichter, Nick LoNigro, Hustava, Mains, and Kyle Anderson.