MUNHALL, Pa. - Baseball 15-16 (6-8) hosted a crucial PAC doubleheader versus the Titans of Westminster College. The Cougars took two much needed games to keep themselves in PAC playoff contention, winning game one 2-0 and game two 7-5.
The story of game one was Cougar starter Junior
Carter Beneigh. Through three innings of play, Beneigh struck out seven batters out of the nine outs he collected. In the process, the Cougars scored their two runs in the second and third inning and that was all Beneigh would need. Freshman
Eli Kelley led off the second with a triple to center field and would later come in on a Titan error. The next inning, Senior
Benny Dottle led this inning off with a double down the left field line. Next batter was Freshman
Ty Blackburn, who entered the contest early in the first inning due to a Chatham injury. Blackburn proceeded to lay down a sac bunt, moving Dottle to third base. Designated Hitter Sophomore
Caleb Jones reached on an error by the second baseman, but Dottle was safe at home regardless. Neither team would score from the third inning on as Chatham defeated Westminster 2-0 in game one.
Beneigh added some accolades as he threw a complete game shutout, joining Cougar alum Bryan Crawford (17') as the only other to do so. Along with the CG, Beneigh's 11 strikeouts is now a new single game record and a career high. During the nine innings Beneigh threw, he achieved 50 innings on the season, something a Chatham Cougar has never done until today. Beneigh improves to 5-3 on the season and the fifth win ties former Cougar Austin Andonisio (18-21') for most wins in a season in Chatham Baseball program history.
Cougars outhit the Titans 9-6. Five different Cougars recorded a hit and Sophomore
Angelo DeLeonardis and Freshman
Brandon Bell had two hits apiece.
In game two, things were scoreless after three innings play. Cougar starter
Nick Martin and Titan starter Jon Albers kept the bats in check early on. The Cougars got to Albers in the fourth when they put up five runs to give the Cougars a 5-0 lead after five innings of play.
Brandon Bell continued his hot April with a leadoff triple down the right field line in the fourth. Senior
Frankie DeLuca would follow up Bell with a bunt single to put runners on the corners and nobody out. Next batter Junior
Tyler Cote blooped a single into center that brought home Bell. Back to the top of the order for DeLeonardis where he hit a single to right center to score DeLuca. Next pitch, Dottle followed up DeLeonardis with a single of his own to score Cote. The third straight hit came from Sophomore
Peter Tadic who hit a double that cleared the bases. The Titans had a strong answer two innings later as they scored four runs to trim the Cougar lead to 5-4. They scored another in the seventh to tie things up and give the Titans momentum. The Cougars showed their fight as they had a strong answer in the bottom of the eighth as they scored two key runs that gave them a 7-5 lead. Things got started when
Tyler Cote got hit by a pitch to start the eighth. Freshman
Ty Blackburn's sac bunt would turn out to be huge for the Cougars as the next three hitters (DeLeonardis, Dottle, and Tadic) each singled as Chatham led 7-5 going into the final inning. Junior
Dawson Morrow came in halfway through the seventh inning and went the rest of the way without giving up a hit and striking out 6 as he earned his third win of 2024.
Cougar starter
Nick Martin went five innings. Martin: 5 IP, 3 R, 5 BB, 4 K.
With
Dawson Morrow picking up six strikeouts today, he now ties Austin Andonisio (18-21') for most strikeouts in program history with 87. (2.1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 6 K)
Three straight hits on two different occasions from the 1-3 hitters in the Cougar lineup would turn out to play a huge role in game two. The Cougars 1-4 batters featuring DeLeonardis, Dottle, Tadic, and Jones went a combined 11-19 (.578) and were responsible for 11 of the 16 Chatham hits. DeLeonardis went 6-9 on the day as he pushes his batting average to .369 (41-111).
With the sweep, Baseball moves to over .500 for the first time this season at 17-16 (8-8). Chatham is off tomorrow but will continue PAC play on Monday as they will travel to Geneva College 15-19 (5-13). The games are expected to start at 11 AM and 2 PM.
#RollCougs
