W&J beats Rowan, advances to Super Regional

The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team broke a 4-4 tie with two runs in the fifth inning to earn a hard-fought 6-5 victory over No. 11 Rowan University to capture the Salisbury Regional Championship on Sunday afternoon.
The win advances the Presidents into next week’s NCAA Division III Super Regional round, where they will face Misericordia University Friday. The game times and location have not been determined. Misericordia advanced to the Super Regionals after beating No. 1 Christopher Newport in three games during a best-of-five series in Virginia.
The win improves W&J to 35-11 this season. The 35 victories are tied for the third most in a single season in school history. The triumph was the Presidents third in as many days against a ranked opponent. The Presidents answered each of Rowan’s scoring innings with one of their own.
Trailing 2-0 in the first inning, Dante Dalesandro began his stellar day with an opposite-field solo home run on the first pitch of the inning. The home run was his second of the season and third of his career.
The second run came off the bat of James Artale, when his groundout scored Mullen Socha from third.
In the bottom of the third, the Presidents needed another answer following a run scored by the Profs. Socha blasted a two-run homer to left field. Dalesandro scored from first following a single to begin the inning.
Rowan tied the score at 4-4 in the top of fifth. W&J scored two runs to go ahead 6-4. Dalesandro capped his 3-for-4 day at the plate with an RBI single, before Josh Crummer had an RBI single up the middle.
Dalesandro finished the afternoon with three runs and two RBI. Socha went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs.
Santino Platt got the start and went three innings with four strikeouts and three runs allowed. Michael Zito entered in the fourth and tossed a season-high 3 2/3 innings with two runs allowed on his way to picking up the victory. The sophomore is 2-1 with a pair wins during the postseason.
With a one-run lead, head coach Jeff Mountain brought in Mitchell Taufer to get the final out of the seventh inning. Taufer did get that last out, before pitching a clean eighth to set up Clay Martin for the ninth.
Martin got two straight groundouts to begin the inning. Following a single by the next batter, the senior closer struck out the Profs’ final hitter to pick up his third save of the regional. Martin is tied for the single-season program record with 10 saves.
Martin and Taufer have combined for 6 1/3 postseason innings without allowing a run. Martin has not allowed a run in his last six appearances, and Taufer owns a team-best 0.91 ERA with just three runs allowed in 29 2/3 innings.