GREENVILLE, Pa. (May 7) – The Waynesburg University baseball team closed the regular season on Monday with a road trip to Thiel. The Yellow Jackets rallied from an early deficit, but came up short of victory in a 10-7 loss.
Things started well for Waynesburg (21-17, 15-9), as senior third baseman
Tyler Reis (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Penn Hills) singled in junior second baseman
Justin Buberl (Westminster, Md. / Westminster) with two outs in the top of the first inning. Unfortunately, Thiel (17-22, 13-11) scored the next six runs and held a 6-1 lead after the end of the sixth inning.
The Jacket bats reignited in the top of seventh for a half-dozen tallies that put them back ahead at 7-6. Senior first baseman
Jordan Kowalski (Butler, Pa. / Knoch) logged an RBI on a fielder's choice, before coming into score on a two-run single by sophomore right fielder
Tyler Srbinovich (Warren, Ohio / Niles McKinley).
Freshman
Ty Kildow (Bethesda, Ohio / Union) got in on the act with a pinch-hit RBI single that scored Srbinovich and put the Orange and Black ahead 7-6. Waynesburg also took advantage of a Thiel error, a dropped third strike and a wild pitch during the fruitful inning.
Unfortunately, the lead was short lived. The Tomcats tied the score in the bottom of the frame before tallying the game's final three scores in the eighth.
With the playoffs scheduled to start on Thursday, the Yellow Jacket coaching staff, including veteran pitching coach
Perry Cunningham, carefully parceled out the day's innings to prepare arms for the postseason. Junior starting pitcher
Jonny Kutchman (Johnstown, Pa. / Richland) logged a perfect first inning before turning the ball over to a series of eight relief pitchers, all of whom worked between one-third of an inning and two full frames.
Buberl paced the Waynesburg offense from the leadoff spot by going two-for-three with a double and a walk.
With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the Yellow Jackets can now turn their full attention to their opening game in the playoffs against Grove City. Third-seeded Waynesburg faces second-seeded Grove City at Washington & Jefferson's Ross Memorial Park at 4 p.m. on Thursday. It will be the second of two games taking place that day after top-seeded W&J faces fourth-seeded Bethany at 1 p.m.
Regardless of the outcomes, all four teams are guaranteed at least a second PAC postseason game. Those second contests are scheduled for Friday in Washington.
Ticket prices are set at $5 per game for adults and $2 per game for any non-W&J students. Full coverage of the PAC playoffs, including a link for the PAC Sports Network's live video coverage, can be found
here. Live audio coverage of all Waynesburg games is scheduled to be provided by greenesports.net.
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