Box Score BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (April 8) – The Waynesburg University baseball team continued its strong play against Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) competition on Tuesday, when it traveled to Geneva College. The Yellow Jackets piled up 21 hits, 10 of which were extra-base knocks, and got a fantastic outing on the mound from sophomore
Connor Furwa to defeat the Golden Tornadoes 18-2.
The 16-run margin of victory is Waynesburg's (10-13, 6-2) widest since winning 20-0 over Franciscan University back on April 1, 2008. The Jackets' win over the Golden Tornadoes (7-17, 3-8) gives them their third PAC season series win of the year.
The visiting team wasted no time in getting its bats going as the Jackets plated four runs in the first inning. Freshman designated hitter
Jonathon Kletzli got things rolling with a two-run double that scored senior centerfielder
Clay Roman and junior leftfielder
Ben Shorthouse. Waynesburg posted the eventual game-winning tally when sophomore first baseman
Matt Bensinger drilled a triple that pushed Kletzli across home plate. Freshman third baseman
Luke Carter started a big day with a sacrifice fly to left field that allowed Bensinger to sprint home and make the score 4-0.
After a scoreless second inning, the Jackets began a string of five-straight frames with at least one run scored by dropping three scores in the third. Carter belted a two-run homer, his first collegiate long ball to extend his team's advantage to 6-0, and was followed immediately by junior
Jordan Truscott teeing off on his first Waynesburg dinger.
The fourth inning brought three more Waynesburg runs, the first two of which were recorded when Roman drilled a double that scored Shorthouse and junior right fielder
Eric Crum. After moving to third on a sacrifice fly, Roman ran the Jacket lead to double digits (10-0) on a Bensinger sac fly.
Waynesburg found yet another way to score in the top of the fifth, when senior shortstop
Neal Yakopin singled, stole second base and scored on a two-base error. Already up 11-0, the Jackets really poured it on with a four-run sixth inning. Kletzli got things rolling with his team-leading second homer of the year, a solo shot that pushed his team's lead to an even dozen runs. Senior catcher
Marc Timmons followed five batters later with a run-scoring single. Yakopin smacked an RBI knock during the next at-bat, and Waynesburg put the finishing touches on the highly productive frame when Crum produced a two-run double that made the score 16-0 Jackets.
After the Orange and Black picked up run number 17 in the seventh, Geneva broke up the shutout with a tally in the eighth to make the score 17-1. A Geneva error helped produced the Jackets' final run of the afternoon in the top of the ninth, before the Golden Tornadoes closed out the scoring with a tally in the bottom of the frame.
A total of 14 Waynesburg batters picked up at least one hit each in the victory, including Timmons, who connected on a game-high three hits in four at-bats. Eight different Jackets notched at least one RBI in the win, with Carter driving in a game-high four runs, while 11 visiting players scored at least one run each. Bensinger crossed home plate three times in the triumph.
Furwa put together maybe his best collegiate game on the mound at Geneva. The righty tossed seven shutout innings, during which he gave up just three hits and one walk. The Latrobe, Pa. native notched two strikeouts while running his season record to 2-1 and dropping his ERA to 2.91.
Waynesburg is back in action tomorrow when it plays its second-straight nine-inning PAC road game, this one coming at Thiel College. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m., and it will be the second of seven-straight road games for the Jackets.
