GRANVILLE, W.Va. (April 21) – The Waynesburg University baseball team scored 11 ninth-inning runs to down Chatham 15-7 at Kendrick Family Ballpark on Sunday afternoon.
The Jackets trailed 7-4 going into the top of the ninth and smacked 11-straight hits to open the inning to score nine runs before recording their first out in the frame.
Waynesburg rises to 21-13 on the season and 14-4 in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play. The Jackets clinch a spot in the PAC Tournament for the first time since 2019. Waynesburg's 21 victories match the highest total in the last decade. Chatham falls to 14-16, 6-8 PAC.
Mike Bell (Herminie, Pa. / Yough), Trent Giraffa (Hanover, Pa. / Delone Catholic) and Dalton Mount (Sykesville, Md. / Westminster) each drove in multiple runs in the ninth inning rally. Matthew Corte-Gaskil (Wake Forest, N.C. / Knightdale) tossed 2.1 scoreless innings to close the game to pick up his first win of the season.
Chatham scored in six of the first seven innings to build a 7-4 lead after seven innings. The Cougars hit a home run in the first and a two-run shot in the seventh. Chatham scored on a contested inside the park home run in the fifth when a ball bounced high off the turf and potentially hit a surface over the fence but play was not halted and the batter made it all the way around the bases. The umpires convened and affirmed the inside the park home run.
Waynesburg tied the game at three in the fourth as Giraffa ripped a two-out, bases loaded double. The Jackets also loaded the bases in the seventh but were limited to just one run on a sacrifice fly.
The Cougars scored went ahead 7-4 on a two-run homer in the seventh and kept Waynesburg off the scoreboard in the eighth before the Jackets embarked on their 11-run outburst in the ninth.
Giraffa went 3-for-5 with a double, five RBI and two runs scored. Bell had two hits, three RBI and three walks. Dalton Mount (Sykesville, Md. / Westminster) had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored. Todd Burner (Parkersburg, W.Va. / Parkersburg South) posted four hits in the ballgame and scored twice.
Ethan Erhard (Greensburg, Pa. / Hempfield) went six-plus innings as the Jackets' starter. He nearly was chased in the third as Chatham was ahead 3-0 with runners on second and third with nobody out but escaped the inning with no more damage as a runner was thrown out at the plate and a lineout halted the threat.
Waynesburg concludes PAC play on Tuesday with a doubleheader at Grove City.