ANNVILLE, Pa. – The 24th ranked Washington & Jefferson College baseball team split a pair of games Saturday at the NCAA Regionals hosted by Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. W&J fell 14-7 in the opener to 10th ranked Rowan University before bouncing back with a 13-6 victory against Mitchell later in the day.
W&J now holds a 37-9 overall record. The 37 wins are tied for the third most in program history. The Presidents will face Rowan in Sunday's Championship round. W&J will have to beat the Profs twice to win the regional. Rowan needs just one win on Sunday to advance to Super Regionals. First pitch for game one will be at 10 a.m.
#10 Rowan 14, #24 W&J 7 (NCAA Regional - Winner's Bracket Final)
Rowan, ranked No. 10 in the nation, tallied seven runs over its final two at bats to break open a close game late in a 14-7 win over W&J in the winner's bracket final Saturday afternoon. The Profs improve to 32-8 overall and advance to Sunday's regional championship round.
A one-out triple by Ryan Murphy and a subsequent infield RBI single by Patrick Defeciani gave the Profs an early 1-0 lead after the top of the first.
Rowan added to its lead in the top of the second inning. Four consecutive Profs reached base, which included an RBI single by Tyler Cannon that made it 2-0. However, Jameson Campbell (Painesville, Ohio/Riverside) escaped further damage as he induced an inning-ending double play.
The Presidents put up three runs in the bottom of the frame to take their first lead of the day. W&J took advantage of an erratic Jason O'Neill, who walked the bases loaded. The Presidents first run was scored by Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum), who scampered home on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) delivered a two-run double with two outs to give W&J a 3-2 lead.
W&J tacked on another run in the bottom of the third inning when Nate Rush (Wheeling, W.Va./The Linsly School) and Kalinski singled to start the inning. A sac fly by Sante stretched the lead to 4-2.
Rowan took the lead with a big fifth inning. The first six batters of the inning reached as the Profs pushed five runs across in the frame to take a 7-4 lead.
Trevor Dean (San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) launched a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to trim the deficit to 7-5.
W&J seemed poised to tie the score in the bottom of the seventh. The Red and Black loaded the bases with no outs. However, they settled for just one run as Sante brought home Horvat on a sac fly down the left field line. W&J stranded a pair of runners on base and trailed Rowan 7-6 after seven innings.
The Profs put the game away with four runs in the eighth and three more runs in the ninth.
Rush finished with a team-high three hits. Samson and Horvat finished with two hits apiece. Horvat and Sante had two RBI each.
Campbell suffered the loss as he allowed seven runs in four innings. Ethan Marszalek (Katy, Texas/Seven Lakes) tossed three scoreless innings of relief out of the bullpen.