May 18, 2019 2 min read

Sophomore pitcher Nick Drake tossed six shutout innings as the Washington & Jefferson College baseball team defeated 11th-ranked Rowan University, 2-0, in a winners’ bracket game of the NCAA Division III Salisbury Regional Saturday afternoon.

The win improves the Presidents to 34-11 overall and advances them to Sunday’s NCAA Salisbury Regional Championship round. W&J will play Rowan, which won an elimination game against Salisbury Saturday afternoon, in the championship at 11 a.m.

Rowan would have to beat the Presidents twice today to advance to next weekend’s Super Regionals.

Neither team could muster much offense as Drake, a Canon-McMillan graduate, matched up in a pitcher’s duel against Profs’ senior starter Danny Serreino. Despite working a pair of runners on base in the second and third innings, W&J was unable to record a hit to scratch out a run.

Sparked by senior shortstop by Spencer Howell, the Presidents broke through in the bottom of the fifth inning. Howell led off the inning with a single into left field. The senior then swiped second before Justin Griffin drew a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. With Shayne Erny at the plate, Howell used a heads up play on the bases to steal third. Later in the at-bat, Erny scored Howell with an RBI single up the middle to give W&J a 1-0 lead. A few batters later, Mullen Socha singled to center to score Griffin, which extended the Presidents’ lead to 2-0.

Drake pitched a scoreless sixth inning before giving way to the W&J bullpen. Rowan put a pair of runners on base with two outs in the seventh inning. However, Jansen Eichenlaub induced a groundout to end the threat.

For the second straight day, Mitchell Taufer registered a scoreless eighth inning of relief. Clay Martin, another Canon-McMillan graduate then retired the Profs in order in the ninth to preserve the victory for W&J. The save was the second in as many days and ninth on the season for Martin.