SALISBURY, Md. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team earned a hard-fought 6-5 victory over No. 11 Rowan University to claim the Salisbury Regional Championship on Sunday afternoon. The win advances the Presidents into next week's NCAA Division III Super Regional round where they will face Misericordia University.

The win improves W&J to 35-11 this season. The 35 victories are tied for the third most in a single-season in school history. The triumph was the Presidents third in as many days against a ranked opponent. 

The story of today's contest was W&J's perseverance, as the Presidents answered each of Rowan's scoring innings with one of their own. This comeback grit was exhibited in the bottom of the first inning. 

Trailing 2-0, Dante Dalesandro (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) needed just one pitch to wake up the bats. The senior began his stellar day with an opposite-field solo home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first. The long ball was his second of the season and the third of his career. 

The second run came off the bat of James Artale (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston), when he tallied an RBI groundout to plate Mullen Socha (Independence, Ohio/St. Ignatius) from third. 

In the bottom of the third, the Presidents needed another answer following a run scored by the Profs. The Red & Black again took advantage of the long ball, with Socha blasting a two-run bomb to left field. Dalesandro scored from first following a single to begin the frame. 

Rowan tied the score at 4-4 in the top of fifth. This set up another opportunity for W&J to come back, as it plated two runs to go ahead 6-4. Dalesandro capped off his 3-for-4 day at the plate with an RBI single, before Josh Crummer(Great Falls, Va./Flint Hill School) posted an RBI single of his own up the middle. 

Dalesandro finished the afternoon with three runs scored and two RBIs. Socha joined Dalesandro with multiple hits, as he went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

With confidence in the W&J offense to erase any deficits, the Presidents' pitching staff had the conviction to go out and nail down the victory. 

Santino Platt (Pittsburgh, Pa./OLSH) got the start and went 3.0 innings with four strikeouts and three runs allowed. 

Platt then gave way to Michael Zito (Nashville, Tenn./Hume-Fogg), who entered in the fourth and tossed a season-high 3.2 innings with two runs allowed on his way to picking up the victory. The sophomore is now 2-1 on the year with a pair wins during the postseason. 

With a one-run lead, head coach Jeff Mountain brought in Mitchell Taufer (Washington, Pa./Bishop Canevin) to get the final out of the seventh inning. Taufer did get that last out, before pitching a clean eighth to set up Clay Martin(Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) for the ninth. 

Martin entered and induced two straight groundouts to begin the frame. Following a single by the next batter, the senior closer struck out the Profs' final hitter to pick up his third save of the regional. Martin is now tied for the single-season program record with 10 saves in 2019. 

Martin and Taufer proved critical in this weekend's regional, as the duo combined for 6.1 innings pitched without allowing a run. Martin has not allowed a run in his last six appearances, while Taufer owns a team-best 0.91 earned-run average with just three runs allowed in 29.2 innings. 

The Presidents will face Misericordia University in the Super Regionals, beginning on Friday, May 24. The game times and location will be determined later tonight. Misericordia advanced to the Super Regionals after beating No. 1 Christopher Newport in three games during a best-of-five series hosted by the Captains.