WASHINGTON, Pa. (March 30) – The Saint Vincent baseball team dropped both ends of a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader at defending conference champ Washington & Jefferson.
In the opener, the Bearcats found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 score in a classic pitcher's duel, before the Presidents did the bulk of their damage in the middle innings of the nightcap to win 10-6.
GAME ONE – W&J 2, SAINT VINCENT 1
The two teams combined for just seven hits in the seven-inning opening affair, with the starting pitchers from each side throwing complete games in the brisk, 88-minute affair.
Bearcat hurler
Casey Jones turned in his best performance of the young season, working all 6.0 innings and allowing two runs on just five hits with two strikeouts.
The Bearcat bats, however, were also kept at bay by W&J's Jameson Campbell, who limited the SVC offense to only two hits in facing just two batters over the minimum.
After two scoreless innings, W&J loaded the bases in the bottom of the third with one out on a double and a pair of walks. Jones would limit the damage, allowing just one run on an RBI groundout.
Saint Vincent answered right back in the top of the fourth to manufacture a run to tie the game.
Jordan Sabol singled to center, moved to second on a
Zach Barberich sacrifice, and scored on a
TJ Dailey groundout.
The Presidents scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out double to the right field corner from Jacob LaDuca, and the Bearcats were unable to muster another rally, with Campbell retiring the final nine SVC batters in order.
A two-out double in the first by
Zach Barberich and Sabol's leadoff single in the fourth proved to be the Bearcats' only two hits.
GAME TWO – W&J 10, SAINT VINCENT 6
The Bearcats threatened in the top of the second of the nightcap, loading the bases on singles from Dailey,
John Evans and
Justin Wright, but all three were stranded. In the bottom half, W&J scored the game's first run on a leadoff solo home run by Joe Lehner.
Saint Vincent evened the game at 1-1 in the fourth.
Billy Perroz led off with a double to right center, and was promptly plated on a two-bagger from
Zack VonStein.
A two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth put the Presidents in front 3-1, but SVC answered right back in the top of the fifth. With one out, Sabol doubled, before Barberich walked and Dailey was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Sabol scored on an RBI groundout from Perroz, but it was the only run SVC would get in the inning, stranding two more runners.
After the Presidents scored four times in the bottom of the fifth to go up 7-2, SVC got one run back in the sixth when an RBI single from
Julian Santana plated Evans, led off with a single. W&J answered by sending eight men to the plate in the bottom half of the frame and scoring three runs to go open up a 10-3 lead.
Facing their last at-bats, the Bearcats looked to put together one last rally in the top of the ninth.
Owen Kitts drew a pinch-hit walk and would score two batters later on an RBI single from
Cameron Hyde.
Austin Tirpak followed by reaching base on an error, before
Kyle Belmont stroked a triple to the corner in right to bring home Hyde and Tirplak and cut the gap to 10-6. The rally would fall short, however, as the Presidents ended the game with a strikeout to close out the doubleheader sweep.
The Bearcats equaled the Presidents with 11 hits on the day, with Sabol and Evans finishing with two apiece, but SVC stranded 10 runners on base.
Jeremy Kreuzweiser started for SVC on the mound and was saddled with the loss, working 4.1 innings and allowing six runs on five hits with one strikeout. He was the first of four pitchers for the Bearcats on the day, with Barberich and Wright each throwing scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth.
Saint Vincent (4-8, 0-2 PAC) will be back in action on Saturday, April 2, hosting Chatham University for a single, nine-inning contest beginning at 1 p.m. at Bearcat Ballfield.
