BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (March 23) – The Waynesburg University baseball team traveled to Geneva on Saturday for a pair of Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) contests. The Yellow Jackets rode the pitching of senior Ty Wickline (Clarksburg, W.Va. / Liberty) to an 8-1 win in game one. The Jackets fell behind 5-1 going to the eighth inning of game two, but staged a furious comeback to pull out a 10-6 victory to complete a season sweep of the Golden Tornadoes.
 
With Saturday's two wins, Waynesburg improved to 9-8 overall and 3-0 in conference play. It marks the first time the Jackets opened PAC competition at 3-0 since before 2003. The losses dropped Geneva to 0-3 in PAC competition and 4-7 on the year.
 
The Jackets wasted little time in building a lead during the opener. An RBI single by junior first baseman Jonny Kutchman (Johnstown, Pa. / Richland) in the first inning opened the game's scoring.
 
The eventual game-winning runs came in grander style as freshman catcher Tyler Woodrow (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine-Richland) teed off on his team and PAC-leading third homerun of the season. The three-run bomb extended the Orange and Black advantage to 4-0. Another Jacket freshman, right fielder Tanner Hudak (Washington, Pa. / Trinity) made it a five-run Waynesburg lead with a run-producing double.
 
The Jacket advantage grew to six runs in the second on a Kutchman RBI double. The road team played a little small ball to score its final two runs of the early contest. Senior leftfielder Tyler Godwin (Bridgeville, Pa. / South Fayette) grounded out with the bases loaded for his first RBI of the day. An error during the at-bat of junior second baseman Justin Buberl (Westminster, Md. / Westminster) gave senior third baseman Tyler Reis (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Penn Hills) the chance to come home with his team's final run of the contest.
 
Geneva plated its only score of game one in the sixth inning, but that was as far as its comeback came to reaching fruition. The RBI single was only the third hit of the opener for the Golden Tornadoes.
 
Wickline was fantastic during the seven-inning PAC contest. He allowed just the one unearned run over a complete game. The veteran yielded just three singles and two walks, while ringing up seven strikeouts in the win.
 
Game two got off to a similar start to the first half of the twin bill as Kutchman came up with an RBI groundout to give Waynesburg a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. However, unlike game one, Geneva came storming back with two runs in the bottom of the frame to take its first lead of the day. The GT's didn't let up as they added a run in the second, one in the fifth and a fifth in the seventh to go up 5-1.
 
Waynesburg rediscovered its offense in its half of the eighth with a three-spot that made the score 5-4. Kutchman plated his team's second run on an RBI fielder's choice and an error during the same at-bat allowed a second Jacket to cross home plate. Two batters later, Kutchman scored on a wild pitch.
 
Geneva seemed to regain control of the game with a score in the bottom of the eighth that put the host squad up 6-4. However, the Waynesburg bats were primed and ready for a game-deciding top of the ninth.
 
Sophomore third baseman Brandon Durbin (Cresson, Pa. / Bishop Carroll) came up with the game-tying two-run single that knotted things up at 6-6. After back-to-back singles loaded the bases, freshman left fielder Luke Winterbottom (Monongahela, Pa. / Ringgold) stroked a two-run double that put the Yellow Jackets back ahead 8-6. A costly Geneva error led to Waynesburg's final two runs that made the score 10-6.
 
Sophomore Tyler Srbinovich (Warren, Ohio / Niles McKinley) came in out of the bullpen to close out the victory. He did just that by allowing just a walk during the four batters he faced. He logged two ninth-inning strikeouts and forced an opposing batter to pop out to seal up the win.
 
Srbinovich relieved senior Nate Gearthart (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon), who got the win out of the bullpen after retiring two of the batters he faced in the eighth inning. The Jackets used five pitchers to secure their latest triumph, including senior Brandon Lawless (Carmichaels, Pa. / Carmichaels), who allowed four runs, only two of which were earned, during a 4.1-inning start. Lawless struck out five, allowed six hits and walked three.
 
Buberl tallied a team-high five hits for Waynesburg over the sweep, two of which were doubles. He also scored three times. Kutchman played a huge role in his team's latest two victories by going four-for-nine with four RBI and three runs scored.
 
The Jackets are back in action on Tuesday at Waynesburg against Washington & Jefferson. First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m.