WAYNESBURG, Pa. (March 27) – The Waynesburg University baseball team opened Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play on Monday by hosting Saint Vincent for a nine-inning doubleheader. The two conference rivals battled over 18 hard fought innings to the tune of a split.
The Jackets (5-11, 1-1) held early multi-run leads in both contests, but the Bearcats (7-10, 1-1) came all the way back to take the opener 6-5. The visitors erased a 3-0 lead and led 4-3 heading to the bottom of the eighth. However, a pair of former Greene County high school rivals provided the game-tying and game-winning runs in a 5-4 triumph.
Game one got off to a fast start for the home team as junior
Marcos Mendez (Ponce, Puerto Rico / Westminster (Md.)) connected on a two-out, two-run single that brought home junior
Nolan Vertullo (Pittsburgh, Pa. / South Fayette) and freshman
Gavin Pratt (Carmichaels, Pa. / Carmichaels) to make the score 2-0.
Waynesburg expanded its lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the second when sophomore
Seth Burgdolt (Taylorstown, Pa. / McGuffey) teed off on a leadoff homerun.
Through the first third of the nine-inning affair, it looked as though the home team was going to cruise to victory. However, things started turning around in the top of the fourth when Saint Vincent tagged sophomore starting pitcher
Aidan Williams (Shaler, Pa. / Shaler) with three runs to tie the score at 3-3.
Williams was put back into a position to pick up the win on the mound thanks to Mendez, who belted his first homer of 2023. The solo shot made the score 4-3.
Saint Vincent fired right back in its half of the sixth with an RBI groundout that knotted things up at 4-4. The Bearcats grabbed their first lead of the opener with a two-run single. That base knock proved to be the deciding hit of the game.
The Jackets weren't ready to give up the fight, however, as Mendez capped arguably his best collegiate game at the plate with a run-scoring double that made the score 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately, that's as close as the home team came to completing a comeback.
The Orange and Black put two runners on in the eighth and ninth innings, but was unable to push a tying run across home plate.
Mendez paced Waynesburg's 10-hit performance by going three-for-four with a game-high four RBIs. He came a triple shy of hitting for the cycle and scored a run. Vertullo added a two-for-three performance with a pair of doubles, while Burgdolt went two-for-four with a walk, an RBI and a run scored.
Williams' most recent start lasted five-plus innings during which he allowed four runs, three of which were earned, on 10 hits and two walks. He posted a pair of strikeouts in the no-decision. Freshman
Dalton Lucey (Holbrook, Pa. / West Greene) suffered the loss after working four innings of four-hit baseball during which he gave up a pair of earned runs. He tallied three strikeouts in his team-leading seventh appearance.
Sophomore
Bryce Bedilion (Clarksville, Pa. / Jefferson-Morgan) got the start on the mound in game two, and while he performed well on the bump, he really stole the show at the plate.
While the second-year southpaw strung together three-straight scoreless innings to open the late contest, Waynesburg again built a 3-0 lead in the early portion of the contest. The Jackets manufactured a pair of second-inning runs, thanks to a sacrifice fly by senior
Todd Burner (Parkersburg, W.Va. / Parkersburg South) and an RBI infield single by junior
Lane Ours (Moorefield, W.Va. / Moorefield). Bedilion brought run number three home in spectacular fashion by launching his first collegiate homerun, a solo shot, over the left-centerfield fence in the third.
Saint Vincent began another comeback with a two-run fourth inning and tied things up at 3-3 in the seventh. The Bearcats again grabbed a late-inning lead when a run-scoring single put them up 4-3.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Bedilion led off the bottom of the frame with another solo homer that knotted the score at 4-4.
After sophomore
Alec Engelmore (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Shaler) pitched a perfect top of the ninth, the Jackets went to work looking to end the game in walk-off fashion. Burner led off with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ours. After Engelmore lined out, Pratt stepped to the plate and came through in a big way by dropping in the game-winning hit, which was a line drive single into centerfield that sent Burner sprinting home for the victory.
Though he didn't get the decision, Bedilion posted a solid 6.1-inning start during which he gave up three runs, none of which were earned, on nine hits and no walks. He struck out a pair of Saint Vincent hitters.
Engelmore got the win after tossing 2.2 innings of relief. He yielded one run on three hits and no walks.
Pratt and Bedilion paced Waynesburg's nine-hit performance with two hits each. The latter of the two led the Jackets in both RBIs (2) and runs scored (2).
Waynesburg gets less than 24 hours to celebrate the victory, as it hosts Chatham tomorrow for another PAC doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
