NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – The Westminster College baseball team split with Thiel College at home in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader on Thursday.
The Titans won, 7-6, in game one, after senior
Hunter Alexander (Beaver Falls, PA / Blackhawk) connected on a two-out single, scoring freshman
Dawson Porter (Kittaning, PA / Armstrong) for the game-winner. The Tomcats won game two, 16-7.
The game was tied, 2-2 at the end of one. Westminster (11-17, 6-10 PAC) took a 5-2 lead, after three runs in the fourth; Porter, Alexander, and senior
Dante Parente (Beaver Falls, PA / Blackhawk) each had an RBI. Thiel (15-17, 11-9 PAC), down 5-3 in its last at-bat in the seventh, rallied to take a 6-5 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the Titans took advantage of a Thiel error and Parente scored the game-tying run to force extra innings. In the bottom of the eighth, Porter registered a two-out double and scored from Alexander's walk-off single. Titan junior
Dante Sienko (Wexford, PA / Pine-Richland) improved to a team-best 4-1 on the mound after only allowing one hit with a strikeout in 1.2 scoreless innings in relief. Alexander, Porter, and Parente each had multiple hits, while Alexander led the Titans with a pair of RBIs. Alexander is now third on the team in RBIs (17).
The Tomcats took control of game two early with an 8-0 lead going into the bottom of the second inning. Junior
Tyler Barnot (Pittsburgh, PA / Bethel Park) scored the first Titan run in the bottom half of the second inning, followed by Porter with an RBI-single. Thiel tacked on a run in the third, two in the fourth, and led 11-2. Westminster started a rally in the bottom of the fourth with five runs, cutting Thiel's lead to 11-7. The Tomcats, however, held the Titans scoreless for the remainder of the contest, while adding five additional runs. Titan freshman
Paul Midili (Spring Hill, FL / Bishop Mclaughlin Catholic) (2-4) started the game and pitched one inning, while giving up seven runs (six earned) on six hits. Midili struck out one and walked two. Porter led the Titans with a career-high three hits. Junior
Jaret Johnson (Niles, OH / Niles McKinley) also had multiple hits for the Titans.
Westminster is scheduled to play at Thiel for a nine-inning game on Monday, April 22 at 2 p.m.
