GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team rallied from an early deficit to defeat the Saint Vincent Bearcats 13-3 to complete the series sweep in a nine-inning Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) contest at Tomcat Park on Tuesday afternoon.
Saint Vincent struck first in the top of the first inning off of a RBI double by Greg Martin that scored T.J. Kuny and Dylan Kugler.
Thiel responded by putting up 12 unanswered runs. Thiel batted around in the bottom of the second. Josh Doody recorded the first Thiel run of the game on a double to left field by Bryan Mitchell. Two batters later, Daniel Patrice brought home Mitchell and Brian Genco on a base-loaded single to left field. Matt Elko also plated two runs on a RBI single up the middle that scored Patrice and Nick Grice. Dan Koller followed with a sacrifice fly to left field that allowed Nick Fowkes to tag up to third. When Doody came to bat again in the second inning, he drove home Trent Smith from second base on a single to center field.
After scoring seven runs in the bottom of the second, Thiel added five more runs in the bottom of the third. Fowkes notched a RBI infield hit to the shortstop with the bases loaded to score Mitchell. Elko followed up with a single to left field that scored Grice from third. In the next at-bat with the bases loaded, Koller reached on a fielder's choice but Patrice scored from third on an errant throw home by the Saint Vincent third baseman. Smith then connected with a two RBI single to right field that brought Koller and Elko home.
Saint Vincent did score a run in the top of the fifth to cut into the lead but Thiel pushed the lead back to double-digits in the bottom of the eighth inning when Shiloh Turner doubled to right field to plate Jake Marino.
The 10-run cushion was more than enough for Elko to record his third win of the season. Elko struck out four batters in six strong innings. Nick Bucci, Alex Yoder and Jonathan Oden each pitched an inning of relief without allowing a run
Five Thiel batters registered multiple hits while Smith and Mitchell both collected three hits in the victory.
Thiel (17-6, 6-2 PAC) will host the Westminster Titans in a PAC matchup on Wednesday. First pitch for the nine-inning game will be 4 p.m. from Tomcat Park.