Baseball: W&J wins, clinches spot in PAC tournament
Nick Vento’s grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday capped Washington & Jefferson College’s 11-4 victory over Thomas More in the regular-season finale and secured a berth this week’s Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament in Crestview Hills, Ky.
The Presidents (16-8, 24-15) clinched the No. 3 seed for the conference tournament and will play No. 2 seed Thiel (17-7, 28-12) in the opening round Thursday. Top-seeded Thomas More (204, 26-9) will play fourth-seeded Grove City (15-9, 25-14) in the other first-round game.
W&J has won 10 of its last 11 games.
Leading 7-4, W&J opened the eighth inning by drawing two walks and Derek Helbing put down a bunt single to load the bases. Vento then drove the second pitch of his at-bat over the right-centerfield fence at Ross Memorial Park for his seventh homer of the season and third of the series.
Starter Bryce Schnatterly pitched five innings for the win and Nick Kolat threw four scoreless innings of relief for his first save.
Frank Fortunado was 3-for-5 with a triple and was one of four Presidents with at least two RBI. Ryan Sciullo also had a triple and two RBI.