(WASHINGTON, Pa.) – The second-seeded Thomas More College baseball team defeated fourth-seeded Saint Vincent College, 11-1, today (Friday, May 11, 2018) in the winner's bracket final game of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championship Tournament at Ross Memorial Park in Washington, Pennsylvania.
With the win, the Saints improve to 23-17 and advance to the championship game of the PAC Championship Tournament's championship game tomorrow. The Saints must win one of the two championship games as the first game is scheduled for 1 p.m. and the "if necessary" game at 4 p.m. With the loss, the Bearcats fall to 15-20 and will play either No. 1 seed Washington & Jefferson College or No. 3 seed Thiel College in an elimination game at 6 p.m. tonight.
Thomas More took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when senior second baseman Ben Laumann (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) scored on a sacrifice fly by junior first baseman Sam Lawrence (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton). In the second inning, junior catcher Matt Wellbrock (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) scored on a run batted-in single by junior Blaise Ostertag (Burlington, Ky./Conner) to increase the lead to 2-0 after two innings.
The Saints had a big third inning to increase the lead to 8-0. Junior designated hitter Sam Hauer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) scored on a bases loaded walk. Junior shortstop Jacob Whitford (Fort Thomas, Ky./Highlands) had a RBI single scoring Lawrence and senior third baseman Tyler Smith (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton). Wellbrock then had a RBI single scoring junior right fielder Joshua Boeckmann (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder). Whitford and Wellbrock scored on a RBI single by Laumann.
Thomas More added two more runs in the fourth to increase the lead to 10-0 when Lawrence scored on an error and then Ostertage singles scoring Smith.
Lawrence had a RBI single scoring first-year left fielder Brady Reynolds (White Oak, Ohio/LaSalle) in the fifth to extend the lead to 11-0.
Saint Vincent plated a run in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 11-1.
Senior pitcher Brandon Eliadis (Lawrenceburg, Ky./Anderson County) earned the complete game win as he gave up one run (unearned) on four hits and struck out three.
Four Saints had multiple hits in the game. Lawrence was three-for-four with a double, two RBI and two runs scored. Ostertag was three-for-four with two RBI. Hauer was two-for-three with a run scored and Smith was two-for-five with two runs scored.