WASHINGTON, Pa. – Sixth-seeded Chatham Baseball (30-13, 13-9 PAC) fell 7-4 in Friday afternoon's PAC Tournament winner's bracket final to #2 seed Washington & Jefferson (30-11, 17-5).
The Presidents got on the board in the first inning, scoring a couple of runs on a two-out base hit. W&J tacked on 2 more in the second, as a sac fly scored two runners on the same play. In the fourth, the Presidents extended their lead to 5-0 on another sac fly. Then in the top of the sixth,
Angelo DeLeonardis,
Nolan Boehm and
Eddie Rueda began the inning with consecutive base hits and
Cooper Baxter brought them all around the bases with a blast over the left-field fence. The Cougars could not muster any additional runs for the remainder of the game, however, falling just short for their first loss of the tournament.
Baxter produced all 4 RBIs in the game for Chatham in his 1-3 performance at the plate, additionally scoring a run and drawing a walk. At the top of the Cougars' lineup, DeLeonardis and Boehm both went 2-4 and scored a run. Rueda,
Caleb Jones and
Devin Fluhmann all went 1-4 in Game H, with Jones recording a double.
Gianni Cantini was credited with the loss, allowing 5 earned runs on 10 hits with 4 strikeouts in his 6-inning start.
Ethan Botkin pitched the remaining 2 innings, yielding a run on 3 hits with a punch out.
Chatham will get another opportunity to advance to the Championship series at 6 p.m. They will need a victory against fifth-seeded Grove City to avoid elimination.
