PITTSBURGH – Chatham Baseball (18-21, 10-10 PAC) kept their postseason hopes alive by sweeping Franciscan (13-25, 6-14) in Sunday afternoon's doubleheader by final scores of 10-0 and 15-4.
 
The Cougars scored the first of their 10 runs in game one in the fourth inning when Dominic Colarusso's bunt single brought home Cooper Baxter.  Chatham then broke the game open in the fifth with 5 runs. Peter Tadic and Baxter had RBI base hits, Eddie Rueda scored on a wild pitch, Baxter scored on an error and Nolan Boehm crossed the plate on a Tyler Cote sac fly in the inning. Colarusso's RBI double in the seventh extended the Cougars' advantage to 7-0. Devin Fluhmann's base knock brought in both Colarusso and Cote to make it a 9-run ballgame, and Chatham needed to score just once more for the run rule to come into effect. Jake Bredl was able to walk the game off by scoring on a passed ball to close out the Cougar victory.
 
Carter Beneigh went 5 innings in his start, allowing no runs on 5 hits and striking out 2 to earn the win. Gianni Cantini completed the Chatham shutout by tossing 2 hitless innings with a strikeout. Colarusso went 2-4 at the plate with 2 RBIs and scored a run. Baxter was 3-4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI, and Angelo DeLeonardis finished game one 3-4 with a run scored.
 
The Cougars' offense continued to roll in game two, striking early with a 4-run first inning. Cooper Baxter's base hit plated Angelo DeLeonardis, then Nolan Boehm's triple scored Baxter and Peter Tadic. Boehm came home on Tyler Cote's RBI ground out to cap the inning. The Barons halved the Chatham lead in the third before the Cougars again struck for 4 runs in the bottom half of the inning. Dominic Colarusso's single brought home Baxter and Tadic. Boehm would score on an error, and Colarusso crossed the plate on Jake Bredl's RBI ground out. In the fifth, Chatham put up a third 4-spot, as DeLeonardis had a 2-RBI base knock, Bredl scored on a Rueda sac fly, and DeLeonardis came around via Baxter's double for a 12-2 lead. After surrendering 2 runs in the sixth, the Cougars again reached the run rule threshold by scoring 2 runs on an error and another on a Rueda RBI single in the bottom half. Seniors Aidan Callinan, Kole Mayle and David McSorley combined to pitch a scoreless seventh inning and complete the sweep.
 
Matt Bamford picked up the win on the mound by going 5 innings and allowing 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 3 strikeouts. Offensively for Chatham, Colarusso was 4-4 with 2 RBIs and scored 3 runs. Baxter and Boehm were both 3-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Tadic went 3-3 and crossed the plate twice in game two.
 
The Cougars now occupy sixth place in the PAC standings, one game ahead of Thiel, which owns the tiebreaker over Chatham. The Cougars will qualify for the PAC Tournament if Waynesburg defeats Thiel in both games of their 11 a.m. doubleheader tomorrow.