Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (March 29) – The Waynesburg University baseball team split a pair of hard-fought Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) games at Westminster on Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets took game one 5-4, but fell 5-4 in nine innings during the late game.
Waynesburg is now 5-12 overall and 3-2 in PAC play. Both of their conference losses have been by one run each and have taken extra innings to complete. The Titans' record moved to 13-2 on the year and 3-2 in conference action.
The Jackets struck first in the opener when junior catcher Brendan Scioscia singled in senior shortstop Anthony DeFilippo to make it 1-0 Waynesburg in the top of the first. Westminster answered with a run in the bottom of the second and two more in the bottom of the third, but the Yellow Jackets responded well to the challenge.
The Jackets regained a one-run lead in the top of the fourth thanks to a trio of runs. After loading the bases with three-straight singles to open the frame, senior center fielder Brandon Myers plated a pair of runs with a single to tie the game at 3-3. Freshman second baseman Andrew Rose followed with a sacrifice fly to center field that gave Waynesburg the lead back at 4-3.
Two innings later, the visitors moved ahead 5-3 in the top of the sixth when Rose scored on a sacrifice groundout by junior designated hitter Corey Goeggelman. Waynesburg gave a run back in the bottom of the inning and the Titans doubled to lead off the bottom of the seventh, but the Jackets slammed the door on the comeback try by retiring the final three batters of the game on two groundouts and a strikeout by junior Rob Baumgartel.
Baumgartel got the save after working 1.2 innings of relief for senior starting pitcher Tim Knight, who worked the first 5.1 innings of action for the win. He gave up four runs, all earned, on 11 hits and didn't walk a batter. Knight also notched two strikeouts in the victory.
The late game of the twin-bill started with both teams trading zeroes over the first two innings of action. Westminster struck first in the bottom of the third with a pair of runs, but Waynesburg tied the game up with a run in the top of the fourth and another in the top of the sixth. Scioscia scored Waynesburg's first run of the game on an error, and junior catcher Noah Pust tied the game on a Titan blunder.
The Jackets kept their momentum going into the top of the seventh when they took a 4-2 lead on a two-run double by Pust. Unfortunately, the Titans weren't ready to concede a sweep in front of their home crowd and fired back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.
With the game still tied at 4-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Titans scored the final run of the game on a Waynesburg error.
Freshman Drew Heinle suffered the loss after throwing 1.1 innings of relief and giving up the game-sealing unearned run. Freshman Zack Kreke started on the mound and threw six solid innings in a no-decision situation. He gave up just two runs on five hits and two walks.
Scioscia had a productive day at the plate for Waynesburg during the doubleheader. The junior went five-for-seven (.714 average) with two runs scored and an RBI. DeFilippo and Myers tallied three hits each, while senior outfielder Rob Cool Jr. went two-for-nine with a triple.
The Jackets are scheduled to return to action on Friday, April 1, when they host the first of three games in two days with Thomas More, the 19th-ranked team in Division III. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
