GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team split a home Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader with the Washington & Jefferson Presidents Saturday afternoon.
Matt Elko shut down the W&J offense with a complete game, shutout in the first game en route to a 8-0 game one victory for Thiel. Elko struck out seven batters and only allowed five hits while not giving up a walk.
Thiel struck first in the bottom of the third when Trent Smith singled down the right field line to bring home Elko from second base. Thiel recorded two more runs in the fifth inning on back-to-back sacrifice flies to center field by Josh Doody and Brian Genco.
Thiel added insurance in the bottom of the fifth when they plated five runs in the inning. After Nick Grice reached on an error and advanced to third on a wild pitch, Elko brought him home on a fielder's choice. Dan Koller followed with a double to center field to score Nick Fowkes. After Smith was intentionally walked, Doody doubled to right center that allowed Elko and Koller to cross the plate. Genco followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to score Smith from third base.
Thiel's one through four hitters each notched two hits in the first game. Elko scored three times while Doody drove in three runs in the victory.
Thiel couldn't get the bats going until their final at-bats in the second game of the doubleheader, falling to W&J 10-6.
Bryan Mitchell scored the first Thiel run in the second game with a solo shot over the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth.
Thiel pushed across five runs with two outs in their comeback attempt in the seventh inning, Smith singled to right field to score Elko. Genco came up with bases loaded and cleared the bases with a triple to deep center field. Genco came home when Mitchell followed with an infield single to the shortstop.
W&J scored two runs in the first, second and fourth innings. W&J also scored three runs in the fifth and pushed a run across in the sixth.
Thiel (19-8, 7-3 PAC) will wrap up their weekend series with W&J on Sunday when they travel to Washington, Pa. for a nine-inning game against the Presidents. First pitch from Ross Memorial Park will be at 1 p.m.