GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team picked up an 8-7 victory over the Allegheny Gators in a non-conference game Tuesday afternoon at Tomcat Park.
The win was head coach Joe Schaly's 500th career victory. Schaly became the 40th active head baseball coach in Division III to earn 500 career wins.
"I've been fortunate to have a lot of great players and coaches to work with over the years," Schaly said, reflecting on his milestone achievement.
Thiel got out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Bryan Mitchell scored from third on an error by the Allegheny first baseman on a pickoff attempt. Three batters later, Matt Elko came home on a sacrifice fly to right field by Brian Genco.
After Allegheny scored a run in the top of the third, Thiel added two more runs in the bottom of the third. Josh Doody hit a RBI groundout to second base to score Dan Koller from third base. Genco followed up with a single through the left side to score Trent Smith.
Allegheny chipped away at the Thiel lead with two runs in the top of the fifth, but Thiel responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth and two runs in the bottom of the seventh. After Elko led off the bottom of the fifth inning getting hit by a pitch, Koller tripled Elko home with a hit to the right center field gap.
Mitchell led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single to left field and took second on a stolen base. Elko crushed a two-run home run over the right field fence to extend the Thiel lead.
Allegheny tied up the game in the top of the ninth inning with a four-run burst, all of which were unearned. The Tomcats loaded up the bases in the bottom of the ninth, Filippo Costanzo hit a grounder to second base, and the throw home was off target allowing Elko to slide into home plate and record the game-winning run.
Elko and Koller each had three hits on the day. Elko also scored four runs, tying a program single-game best. Genco drove home two runs and Mitchell crossed the plate twice.
Riley Schwertz earned his third victory of the season in four innings of relief of Jaden Nozicka. Schwertz only allowed three hits in the win.
The Tomcats (11-3) will return to action on Wednesday, March 30 when they travel to Alliance, Ohio to take on the Mount Union Purple Raiders. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.