LATROBE, Pa. (April 14) – The Saint Vincent College baseball team celebrated Senior Day in style, sweeping visiting Westminster College in a Presidents' Athletic Conference doubleheader at Bearcat Ballfield.
In the opener, Saint Vincent (15-13, 8-4 PAC) rallied from a four-run deficit in the eighth inning to score a wild, 8-7 walk-off victory, before the nightcap saw SVC hurlers
Michael Klingensmith and
Jeremy Kreuzwieser combine for a three-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over Westminster (12-14, 6-6 PAC).
Friday marked the Bearcats' third straight series sweep, while they extended their winning streak to eight games.
GAME ONE: Saint Vincent 8, Westminster 7
Saint Vincent took an early lead in the opener, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Dillon Schmude led off the with a single to center, before
Billy Perroz drove him home with a two-out single up the middle for the game's first run. Perroz took second on the subsequent throw from the outfield, and the extra base proved important, as he would then score on another single to center from
Jordan Sabol to make it 2-0.
Westminster threatened in the top of the second, loading the bases on a single and a pair of walks, but SVC starter
Nate Davis would bear down and to retire the final two batters on strikeouts.
Davis continued to keep the Titans at bay over the next several innings, allowing just one hit and three base runners between the third and sixth, while striking out four over the span.
Saint Vincent added insurance with some two-out lightning in the bottom of the sixth. After two quick groundouts,
Devin Bonine singled to center, before pinch hitter
Dalton Nicklow laced a triple off the fence in right center field to up the SVC lead to 3-0.
The three-run lead was short-lived, however, as Westminster sent eight men to the plate in the top of the seventh to score two runs on three hits and two walks, before batting around in the top of the eighth to plate five runs on six hits off of four different SVC pitchers to jump in front 7-3.
The Bearcats would then mount the comeback trail. In the bottom of the eighth, SVC loaded the bases when
Derek Hald was hit by a pitch, Bonine singled to left and Nicklow walked. Following a pitching change,
Alex Hess drew a free pass to bring home Hald, before Schmude also drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Bonine and cut the gap to 7-5.
Saint Vincent reliever
Aaron Stephan threw a scoreless top of the ninth, setting up a wild bottom half of the inning.
Perroz led off the ninth with a towering home run to left field to cut make it a one-run game, 7-6. Sabol followed by drawing a walk, before Bonine laced a ball to the left side that was misplayed by the shortstop, putting runners at first and second.
After Bonine gave way to pinch runner
J'Shawn Taylor, Nicklow hit a roller toward the mound. The ball was initially misplayed, and then thrown wide of the first base bag and into the Westminster bullpen. Sabol scored from second and Taylor came all the way around from first to score the winning run and clinch the walk-off, comeback win.
The Bearcats racked 11 hits in the win, with Perroz, Bonine and
Connor Bannias all finishing 2-for-5. Schmude reached base safely three times, adding two walks to his first inning single, while Sabol singled, walked, drove in a run and scored a run.
Davis took a no-decision in the strong start, allowing just two hits and no runs with six strikeouts over the first six innings. Stephan, SVC's seventh pitcher of the day, earned the win on his Senior Day with his scoreless ninth, striking out one.
Westminster's Kolten Banfi also turned in a strong start, taking the no-decision after going 7.0 innings and allowing three runs on nine hits with five K's. Timothy Lewis took the loss, allowing three runs (one earned) in one inning.
GAME TWO: Saint Vincent 1, Westminster 0
After the Bearcats and Titans combined for 15 runs on 22 hits in an opener that took 3 hours, 5 minutes, the nightcap was a decidedly different story, a classic pitcher's duel between SVC's Klingensmith and Westminster's Logan Exler that saw just eight combined hits and lasted a tidy 1 hour, 45 minutes.
After walking the game's first batter, Klingensmith escaped the first with no harm, inducing a double play and an inning-ending strikeout. The veteran righty would then make quick work of the Titans, retiring 18 of the next 20 batters he faced, surrendering only an infield hit in the second and a walk in the third.
While Klingensmith was carving up the Titans, Exler was also making quick work of the Bearcats, setting down nine of the first 11 batters he faced between the first and fourth innings, and then getting a pair of quick flyouts to start the fourth.
Perroz would then give the Bearcats the only offense that they would need, cracking a long fly ball off the fence in right-center field and scampering the entire way around the bases for the inside-the-park home run, his second homer of the day and team-leading sixth of the season, to give SVC the 1-0 lead.
Klingensmith ran into his only trouble in the top of the eighth, hitting the leadoff batter and then surrendering a two-out single to put runners at first and third. Kreuzwieser was then summoned out of the bullpen, and promptly escaped the jam with a routine fly ball to right field.
The righty would then close out the victory with a 1-2-3 ninth inning, striking out the game's final two batters to seal the win and earn his second save of the year, closing out Saint Vincent's first 1-0 victory since March 12, 2016, at Newport News Apprentice School.
Klingensmith improved to 3-2 on the season after working 7.2 innings shutout innings, striking out eight and allowing just three hits and two walks to face just four batters over the minimum. Kreuzwieser needed just 11 pitches to retire all four batters he faced.
Exler went the distance for Westminster in the hard-luck loss, allowing one run on five hits with one walk and one strikeout.
Offensively, Perroz and Schmude each had two hits for SVC, while Bannias went 1-for-4.
Prior to the doubleheader, Saint Vincent College honored the Bearcats' senior class of Sabol, Stephan,
Cameron Hyde,
Zack VonStein, student assistant Nate Arendas and statistician/play-by-play announcer Kendall Janosko with an on-field ceremony.
The Bearcats, who leaped into sole possession of third place in the PAC standings with the sweep, will be back in action on Tuesday, April 18, with a 1 p.m. home doubleheader against Grove City College at Bearcat Ballfield.
