May 21, 2017 4 min read

For the first time in program history, Washington & Jefferson will be competing for a regional baseball championship, and will do so on its home field.

The fourth-seeded Presidents earned their spot in the championship of the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional with an 8-4 win against sixth-seeded Keystone at Ross Memorial Park late Saturday night.

The win pushed the Presidents to 37-10 overall, which breaks the single-season record for wins, and propels W&J into the regional championship round scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m.

“Another big one for the Presidents,” head coach Jeff Mountain said. “This is a hungry team. The mindset was set by the upperclassmen. We didn’t get out to the start we wanted to last year and that was disappointing. These older guys learned from that and we are happy to be in this position, but it doesn’t surprise us. We preached to play hard every game. We just want to go at it and be loose.”

The Presidents never trailed, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. After the first two runners reached by a hit-by-pitch and walk, respectively, senior Nick Vento delivered an RBI single to open the scoring. W&J scored its second run on a sacrifice fly and Vento came around to score after Ryan Sciullo stayed in a rundown long enough on a first and third steal play.

“We scored early here a couple times in the tournament,” Mountain said. “That has been a big thing. They had momentum from their win early but we took that away early because they had to stay out in the field. We saw a lot of pitches and worked a lot of deep counts. It was big to get off to a good start.”

Vento collected his second straight four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs. Vento’s career hits total is up to 245, six shy of the program record.

W&J starter Bryce Schnatterly was dealing through the first five innings. The Giants didn’t get their first hit off Schnatterly until the fourth inning and first run until the fifth on a solo home run by Bray Curreri, his first of the season.

After the home run, the Giants (33-14) put runners on first and second but Schnatterly was able to wiggle out of the jam with a pickoff at first base.

“I was upset with that pitch,” Schnatterly said of the home run. “It was an 0-2 count and I left a pitch up. I just took some time to settle down after that. Mark (Merlino) made a great call to catch the runner sleeping to make it easier on me to get that last out.”

The Presidents and Giants continued to trade runs through the middle innings. Keystone got its second home run off Schnatterly, this time it was Austin Chaszar’s first homer of the season, bringing the Giants to within 4-3.

W&J dealt the knockout punch in the seventh inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, senior Frank Fortunato delivered an opposite field three-run double to open a 7-3 lead. Fortunato was 2-for-4.

“I have been struggling a little bit and tried to change things up,” Fortunato said. “I went up there just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere. I just went with it to right center.”

Will Bowser closed for the Presidents, striking out seven batters in 2 2/3 innings of relief. The save was his first of the season as Schnatterly got the win, improving to 8-0 on the season.

“(Will) has come a long way,” Mountain said. “Stuff was never an issue with him. He has a good fastball and a really good hard breaking ball. The key for him is strike one. If he is around the strike zone, then he will get some swings. He gave us a good effort.”

The loss was the first in the double-elimination tournament for Keystone, which will have a chance at a rematch with W&J. The Gaints will play the winner of the game between second-seeded SUNY Cortland and seventh-seeded DePauw at 12:45 p.m. Sunday.