WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The No. 25-ranked Washington & Jefferson College baseball team opened its season with a doubleheader split against the University of Mount Union on Sunday afternoon.
Both teams picked up 10-1 victories with Mount Union winning the first contest and W&J emerging victorious in the second. Sunday served as the season-opening day for both teams with a pair of seven-inning ballgames.
Game 1 - Mount Union 10, W&J 1
After a scoreless first two innings, Mount Union struck first with a pair of doubles plating the season's first run to give the Purple Raiders a 1-0 lead in the third.
UMU banged five hits in the top of the fourth to score three more runs and extend its advantage to 4-0.
W&J's lone run was scored in the bottom of the fourth when Nick Guercio (Cabot, Pa./Knoch) blasted a double down the right-field line, scoring Adam Moore (Olean, N.Y./Archbishop Walsh) from second.
A three-run home run by Mount Union's Brain Livolsi highlighted a six-run sixth inning for UMU as the Purple Raiders cruised to a 10-1 victory.
Guercio and Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) each had a double in the season-opener.
Ben Marsico (Brandford Woods, Pa./North Allegheny) earned the opening-game start and went 4.2 IP with six strikeouts and four earned runs. Kamden Kautz (Oro Valley, Ariz./Ironwood Ridge) worked a scoreless inning in relief.
Game 2 - W&J 10, Mount Union 1
Senior Jansen Eichenlaub (Export, Pa./Franklin Regional) took the mound for the Presidents in game two turned in a strong first impression. He struck out two batters in the first inning and then three batters in the second, third and fourth innings.
The Presidents scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on a balk and a sacrifice fly.
W&J's offense continued its momentum in the fourth inning as the Presidents pushed across four runs. Logan Scheider (McDonald, Pa./West Allgheny) capped a long at bat with a two run single, bringing home Adam Morris(South Park, Pa./South Park) and Sante.
Joey Bolick (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) drove in Jameson Campbell (Painesville, Ohio/Painesville Riverside) with a fielder's choice and Moore singled in Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) to make it 6-0 Presidents.
Mount Union used a walk, stolen base, balk and base hit to score its lone run of the contest in the fifth inning. Eichenlaub exited with two outs in the fifth, earning the win with 4.2 innings pitched, 11 strikeouts, two hits and one earned run.
W&J pushed across four more runs in the fifth inning as Sante and Morris smacked back-to-back doubles and Mount Union committed a multiple-error three-run scoring play for the Presidents off the bat of Scheider.
Henry Litman (Marietta, Ga./Walton) finished out the fifth inning and worked a scoreless sixth and Shane Fox(Valencia, Pa./Mars Area) allowed just one hit in the seventh.
The W&J pitchers held Mount Union to three hits over seven innings with 14 strikeouts.
Sante and Morris both had two hits, two runs and a double. Campbell and Rush also had two runs apiece, and Scheider and Moore each drove in two runs.
W&J is scheduled for a Monday doubleheader against Case Western Reserve at Ross Memorial Park at 3:00 p.m.