GROVE CITY, Pa. (May 2)- The Saint Vincent baseball team split their regular season finale doubleheader at Grove City, allowing them to clinch a berth in next week's Presidents Athletic Conference Championship Tournament.

The Bearcats (18-20, 11-9 PAC) downed the Wolverines (27-10, 16-4 PAC) 6-3 in the opener of the doubleheader to clinch their playoff berth, before falling in a 16-6 run-rule shortened contest in game two.

Game 1- Saint Vincent 6, Grove City 3

Saint Vincent was led by a four run first inning, which turned out to be the difference in the opener.

Jeremy Kreuzwieser was strong on the bump for SVC, tossing seven innings, allowing just three earned runs on seven hits, while striking out four and walking two batters. Alex Polito came on in relief to pick up the two inning save, his fourth save of the season for SVC. Polito tossed two scoreless innings, allowing just one hit for the Bearcats.

Offensively, Saint Vincent was led by Jacob Auld, who went 2-3 with two home runs and three RBI's. Derek Hald added two hits in his five at bats, while Kyle Belmont also went yard for Saint Vincent in the win as well. Lane Golkosky added a hit and run scored, while Dalton Nicklow recorded one hit and one RBI. Dylan Schmude, Ben Hudson, and Alex Hess all had hits for Saint Vincent as well.

The Bearcats wasted no time grabbing the momentum as they scored four first inning runs. Nicklow began the scoring with an RBI-double, Belmont followed with an RBI-groundout, before Auld smacked a two-run homer to put the Bearcats up 4-0 out of the gates. 


Grove City added one run in each of the bottom of the first and second innings to cut the Saint Vincent lead to 4-2. 

In the third, Saint Vincent added to their lead as Belmont smacked his solo shot to put the Bearcats up 5-2. Grove City cut the lead back to two at 5-3 after a run in the fourth.

Both starting pitchers took over for the nex three innings as neither team was able to score. Auld added an important insurance run in the eighth with a solo shot, his second homerun of the game to put Saint Vincent back ahead by three at 6-3.

Polito took over the rest of the way for SVC, shutting the Wolverines down in the eight and ninth. He ended the game, inducing a 5-4-3 double play to jump the Bearcats into next week's PAC Tournament.

Game 2- Grove City 16, Saint Vincent 6 (7 Innings)

It was all Wolverines in the second game of the day. Grove City jumped out to a 10-0 lead after five innings, before a six run fifth inning for SVC cut the lead to 10-6. However, the Wolverines outscored them 6-0 the rest of the way.

Six different Bearcats recorded one hit in the loss. Brennen Freiwald led the way with a hit and four RBI's, all of which came on his grand slam homerun in the fifth inning. 

T.J. Bucy, Mario Disso, Jacob Auld, Joseph Pugh, and Isiah Petty all recorded one hit each as well for Saint Vincent.

Christopher Rayman tossed a scoreless inning in relief for the Bearcats, while Tyler Dancu took the loss on the mound.

Saint Vincent trailed 10-0 going into the fifth inning. The grandslam from Freiwald, followed by Bucy scoring on a wild pitch and an L.J. Evans RBI-groundout the Bearcats cut the lead to 10-6.

However, the Wolverines answered, scoring two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh to enfore the ten-run rule and hand SVC the loss in the regular season finale.

Saint Vincent has punched their ticket to next week's PAC Championship Tournament and will await to see who their opponent is and what time slot they will be playing in. The tournament begins on Wednesday, May 7 at Washington and Jefferson.