College baseball: W&J rallies to win PAC tournament opener
Dante Dalesandro drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the No. 18-ranked Washington & Jefferson a 9-8 win over Thiel in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference tournament Thursday at Ross Memorial Park.
Grove City (18-17) upset Thomas More (26-11), 8-7, in the other first-round game of the double-elimination tournament.
Grove City will face W&J (31-9) at noon Friday in a winners’ bracket game. Thiel (21-18) and Thomas More will meet in the tournament’s first elimination game at 3 p.m.
Dalesandro bounced into a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 10th, scoring pinch-runner Mullen Socha with the winning run.
Derek Helbing was the winning pitcher with two innings of relief. He also went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
Top-seeded W&J overcame a 6-3 deficit, scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take an 8-7 lead. Mark merlino had a two-run doduble in the big inning.
Thiel tied the score at 8-8 on a solo home run by Bryan Mitchell.
Grove City’s Andy Fritz drove in the eventual game-winning run with a two-out single in the top of the ninth inning to beat Thomas More.
Phil Bell was the winning pitcher, throwing two innings of relief. He struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth.