PITTSBURGH, PA – #16 La Roche College is heading to the AMCC Championship Game for the seventh consecutive year. The Redhawks hung on to beat Pitt-Greensburg 6-3 and advance in the winner's bracket final. La Roche will play tomorrow at 11am for their fifth straight AMCC Championship and their sixth in the past seven years.
Tre Thomas sent Pitt-Greensburg down in order to start the game. The Redhawks struck twice in the bottom half of the first for a 2-0 lead through one.
Jon Spina and Austin Hoffman each drew 2-out walks and Jay Novak followed with an RBI single to left field and a 1-0 lead. Gino Quahliero walked to load the bases and Jonathan Melendez came back from down 0-2 to draw a bases loaded walk.
Thomas cruised through the Bobcats' batting order. He left a runner at second base with a pair of strikeouts in the second inning. Hoffman, Quahliero and Melendez combined for a 6-4-3 double play to end the third.
Thomas then got a groundout to second base to leave runners at the corners in the fourth. He left runners on first and second in the fifth inning.
Pitt-Greensburg got on the board with an unearned run in the sixth inning.
Joe Professori launched a 2-run homer over the left field wall to go back up 4-1 in the sixth. Elmo Trickett singled, stole second, and scored on Professori's dinger.
Spina followed with a walk and scored two batters later on a Pitt-Greensburg error.
The Bobcats cut the deficit to two in the top of the seventh. They had the tying run on second base, but Jake Seymour got Pitt-Greensburg to chase a pitch to preserve the lead.
The Bobcats were threatening with two on in the top of the ninth. Shane Emrich got Pitt-Greensburg looking at a 3-2 pitch to end the game.
Professori and Novak each had 2 RBIs. Spina reached base four times and scored three runs.
Thomas struck out 6 in 6 innings to improve to 8-1. Seymour pitched two scoreless innings and Emrich earned his seventh save.