WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team locked down the top seed in next week's Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament with a doubleheader sweep of visiting Allegheny College on Senior Day Saturday afternoon at Ross Memorial Park. W&J head coach Jeff Mountain reached 600 career wins with the sweep Saturday.
The pair of wins coupled with a loss by Grove City to Chatham helped the Presidents secure the top spot. The sweep improves W&J to 28-12 overall and 17-3 in conference play. Allegheny, who entered the day with solid hopes of qualifying for the PAC Tournament, fell out of contention. The Gators finished at 13-7 in the conference and 20-16 overall.
Game One - W&J 9, Allegheny 5
Allegheny looked ready to spoil the party early on in game one. A three-run inside the park home run by Sullivan Schueltz gave the Gators a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Hover, W&J countered right back with a three-spot of its own in the bottom of the frame. All three W&J scores were unearned. A two-run home run by Evan Sante (Pittsburgh, Pa./Plum) tied the score at 3-3. The home run is the fifth of the season and 19th of the career for Sante.
W&J gained the lead in the fifth with a pair of runs. Dan Beistel (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) singled through the left side to make it 4-3. W&J tacked on another run on a Allegheny error to make it 5-3.
Logan Scheider (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny) collected an RBI single in the seventh inning to stretch the lead to 6-3. Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa./Penn Trafford) slugged a three-run home run in the seventh to swell the lead to 9-3.
Allegheny scored twice in the ninth to trim the deficit to four but could get no closer.
Beistel went 4-for-4 to pace the offense. Scheider, Sante and Horvat finished with two hits apiece. Ten of the 12 hits in game one were by seniors.
Horvat went the distance for the fourth time this season. He struck out 10 in the complete game effort. The win improves Horvat to 10-2 on the season. The win is the 28th in the career for Horvat, which matches Riley Groves and Eddie Nogay for the most in program history.
Game Two - W&J 10, Allegheny 1
W&J did what it needed to do in game two to secure the sweep. The Presidents scored once in the first and three more times in the second to build the 4-0 lead.
Josh Dezenzo (Alliance, Ohio/Marlington) collected an RBI single before Horvat followed with an RBI double. Jacob LaDuca (Clarence, N.Y./Canisius) tacked on a RBI single to finish off the three-run third inning.
LaDuca added a RBI single in the fourth to make it 5-0. Sam Schuster (Fairport Harbor, Ohio/Fairport Harding) produced an RBI double and Tony Tamilia (Coraopolis, Pa./Moon Area) cracked a two-run double to make it 8-0 in the fifth inning.
Allegheny hit a solo home run to avoid the shutout in the top of the seventh. Joe Lehner (Painesville, Ohio / Lake Catholic) cracked a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth and Luke Virag (New Kensington, Pa. / Burrell) added a RBI double to close the scoring at 10-1.
Horvat and LaDuca recorded two hits to pace the balanced offensive effort in game two.
Nate Nolan (McDonald, Pa. / West Allegheny) tossed four shutout innings to pick up the win. Five relievers combined to allow just one run over the final five innings.
On Deck: W&J will host the PAC Tournament, which runs from May 11-13. The Presidents enter as the top seed and will host fourth-seeded Westminster at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 11.