WASHINGTON, Pa. – Sixth-seeded Chatham Baseball (29-12, 13-9 PAC) dominated in their first postseason contest in school history, taking down top seed Westminster (28-11, 17-5) 9-0 in Game A of the 2026 PAC Baseball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon.
An error and two walks loaded the bases for
Caleb Jones in the first inning, who launched a double to right center field that brought around
Angelo DeLeonardis,
Eddie Rueda and
Cooper Baxter for a 3-0 Cougars lead. Then in the third, with Jones on second and Rueda on first,
Matt Brandt scorched a ball down the left field line for a double that gave Chatham a 5-0 advantage. With starting pitcher
Cason Bennett continuing to scatter 9 Titan hits, the Cougars would not need any additional insurance runs. In the ninth, however, they picked up 4 more, as
Cooper Baxter got all of one and drove it over the left-field fence to bring home Rueda and
Nolan Boehm.
Keegan McGraw added an RBI single that brought in pinch-runner
Evan Swift to cap the scoring in the 9-run Chatham victory.
Bennett would be the only pitcher the Cougars needed to rely upon in Game A, as the senior shoved for all 9 innings to earn his second 9-inning complete game win on the season and first shutout. The Vandalia Butler product stranded 11 baserunners on 9 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6 batters. Rueda went 2-4 at the plate with a walk and scored all 3 times he reached base. Baxter was 1-4 with a walk and scored twice while driving in 3 via his home run. Jones also drove in 3 in his 1-3 performance, scoring a run while also drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch. Brandt went 1-4 with 2 RBIs from the sixth spot in the lineup for Chatham.
Following their first PAC Tournament win in program history, the Cougars will look to improve to 2-0 in the double elimination tournament at 2:30 tomorrow when they're scheduled to face the losing team of tonight's matchup between #3 Allegheny and #4 Bethany.
