FORT PIERCE, Fla. (March 2) – The Waynesburg University baseball team opened its eight-game spring break slate in Florida with a pair of defeats to Wilkes on Sunday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets move to 1-3 on the season while Wilkes rises to 4-2. Both games of the doubleheader were seven inning affairs.

Wilkes scored a run in each of the first three innings of game one and held off Waynesburg 3-2. A seven-run fifth inning powered the Colonels to a 7-3 victory in game two.

Game 1 – Wilkes 3, Waynesburg 2

Trailing 2-0 after two innings, the Jackets tied the game with a sacrifice fly and by scoring on a first and third place in which the tying run scored before the runner on first was tagged out. 

Wilkes took advantage of a leadoff double in the third to go ahead 3-2 with a one-out base hit after a successful sacrifice bunt. Neither team scored in the final four innings as the Colonels held on for the 3-2 win. 

The Jackets managed just one baserunner in the final four innings with a fielding error preceding a double play in the top of the fourth. Wilkes left a runner stranded on third in the fourth and had two baserunners tagged out while attempting to steal in the bottom of the sixth, including the third out coming at home as the Colonels attempted to cash in on a first-and-third place of their own.

Waynesburg managed just four hits by four different players.

Dalton Lucey (Waynesburg, Pa. / West Greene) took the loss after allowing three runs, two earned across five innings. Mike McCready (Greensburg, Pa. / Greensburg Central Catholic) allowed three baserunners but did not allow a run in the sixth.

Game 2 – Wilkes 7, Waynesburg 3

Neither team managed a hit in the first three innings of game two. 

Things unraveled for Waynesburg in the fifth inning as Wilkes opened the inning with a leadoff double and then reached base safely on three consecutive bunts. Twice the Jackets attempted to get a lead runner on sacrifice bunts but the runners were ruled safe. When the dust settled, Wilkes led 1-0 and had the bases loaded with no outs.

Two sacrifice flies, an RBI single, a bases loaded hit by pitch and a two-run double put the Colonels ahead 7-0 by the end of the top of the fifth. 

Wilks put runners on first and second with one out in the top of the sixth before Alex Nicholson (Cortland, Ohio / Mathews) ended the threat with back-to-back strikeouts. In the home half, Waynesburg put runners on second and third with nobody out and came up empty with a popout and an unsuccessful sacrifice fly.

Noah Gabriel (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Shaler) knocked a three-run double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to avoid a shutout as the Colonels secured the 7-3 victory.

Gabriel had two of Waynesburg's five hits and drove in all three of Waynesburg's runs with his seventh-inning double.

Ethan Erhard (Greensburg, Pa. / Hempfield) did not allow a run in each of the first four innings but was tagged with the loss after allowing five earned runs in 4.1 innings. Nicholson pitched two scoreless innings.

The Jackets take on Vermont State Lyndon tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Florida.