Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
WAYNESBURG, Pa. (March 1) – The Waynesburg University baseball team opened the 2011 season on Tuesday at home with a doubleheader against Pitt-Greensburg. The Yellow Jackets needed every second of late-winter sunlight to complete the doubleheader, but made good use of the time as they won a pair of thrilling 3-2 contests to sweep the twin-bill.
Things started well for the Yellow Jackets (2-0) in game one as senior shortstop Anthony DeFilippo drove in the first run of the season for the home team with a solo homerun over the left field fence to make it 1-0 Waynesburg in the bottom of the second. After the Bobcats (0-2) answered with a solo shot of their own in the top of the third, both teams failed to score in the fourth and the visitors grabbed a 2-1 lead with another long ball in the top of the fifth.
However, after the second homer of the game for UPG, Waynesburg's defense, led by sophomore pitcher Anthony Longo settled down and retired the final nine batters of the game. With the Jacket gloves doing their part, the Orange and Black bats woke back up in the bottom of the seventh. With one out on the board, junior leftfielder Mike Neckerman was hit by a pitch and junior designated hitter Noah Pust followed with a double to left-center field.
The stage was set for a walk-off victory, which was exactly what the Yellow Jackets got thanks to sophomore infielder Ty Holderbaum, who smacked a two-run pinch-hit single back up the middle of the field to plate Neckerman and Pust to win the game with just one out on the board.
Along with its timely hitting, Waynesburg got a stellar pitching effort from Longo, who went all seven innings to pick up the win. He scattered just four hits and struck out an impressive nine bobcats without yielding a walk.
The home team struck first once again in the second game of the doubleheader thanks to senior centerfield Brandon Myers, who reached base on an error and later scored on a wild pitch to put his team up 1-0. The Jackets doubled their lead in the bottom of the third when Myers walked and was brought home with a two-out run-scoring single by Pust.
Waynesburg maintained its 2-0 lead until the top of the fifth, when Pitt Greensburg scored a pair of runs to knot up the game at 2-2. From there, the two defenses took over and neither team scored in the sixth or seventh to force the game into extra innings. UPG had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the top of the 10th when they put runners on first and second with no outs on the board. However, junior catcher Brendan Scioscia almost single-handedly got his team out of the jam with a pair of fine defensive plays.
After he threw down to second to catch one batter in a rundown play that was completed by DeFilippo, he gunned a runner out trying to steal third. During one at-bat, he emptied the bases, put two outs on the board and allowed junior pitcher Rob Baumgartel to close the inning with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the 10th, Waynesburg finally put the game away. Junior right fielder Ken Rosenbauer led off the inning with a bunt single, Myers was hit by a pitch and junior third baseman Tim Chilcote reached base on an infield single to load the bags up for DeFilippo. The senior man in the middle stepped up and poked a 1-2 pitch through the infield to end the marathon game at 3-2 with no outs on the board.
Baumgartel put together a sterling performance in his debut with the team. He tossed four innings of two-hit relief, struck out four and gave up just one walk on his way to the win. He relieved senior starter Jesse Gonzalez, who yielded just one earned run over six innings, gave up five hits, struck out four and walked two.
Scioscia had a strong day at the plate, going a team-best three-for-six with two doubles. Pust added a double, a run scored and an RBI as part of a three-hit day and DeFilippo drove in a pair while going three-for-eight with a run scored.
Waynesburg is back in action on March 7, when they head to Davenport, Fla. to take part in the RussMat Central Florida Invitational. They'll play Wittenberg to open their five days of competition in the Florida sun.
