PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A late-inning defensive miscue helped the Tomcat baseball team escape with a 7-5 extra-innings victory over host LaRoche College Tuesday afternoon in Pittsburgh. 

Alex Yoder (Canton, Ohio/St. Thomas Aquinas) collected his first collegiate victory in relief of starter Nick Rossmiller (Butler, Pa./Butler) and Kyle Mohr (Erie, Pa./Mercyhurst Prep) earned the first save of his young career after entering with no outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th.

Rossmiller went 7.1 innings and took a no decision, allowing five runs on 12 hits with four strikeouts. Yoder replaced Rossmiller in the eighth and gave up just one hit in 1.2 innings, and Mohr surrendered two hits and a walk in his 1.0 inning.

Doug Farley (Linesville, Pa./Linesville) had his second three-hit game of season and led the Tomcats with three runs scored and a stolen base, his team-leading fifth of the season. Eric King (Butler, Pa./Butler) had RBI singles in the four-run fifth and three-run sixth while Dan Gainey (Girard, Ohio/Girard) went 2-for-4 with a RBI and a pair of runs scored.

Casey Zimmerman's two-out RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth evened the game at 5-5. Zimmerman went 4-for-5 with a double and two triples, a RBI and a run scored. Anthony Girdano was 3-for-5 with a RBI single in the fifth and Sean Lubin finished 2-for-6.

LaRoche starter Adam Sepesy went 4.0 innings and gave up two runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in the no decision. Ian Kelly tossed 2.0 innings and allowed three runs on five hits, and Tyler Ferguson was dealt the loss after allowing two runs on two hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks in 4.0 innings.

LaRoche (6-12), coming into the contest as winners of five of its last seven, assumed a 4-2 lead after scoring four in the fifth. Thiel (7-9) followed up with three of its own in the sixth to pull ahead 5-4, but Zimmerman's two-out, run-scoring triple in the eighth tied the game at 5-5. Eric Steininger (West Leechburg, Pa./Leechburg) reached on an error with two outs in the top of the 10th, and with Farley and Gainey both scoring on the miscue, the Tomcats posted a pair of runs to go up 7-5.

After Mohr watched the first three Redhawks reach in the bottom of the 10th, the youngster showed his mettle by recording a strikeout and a game-ending double play to close out the game.

Thiel is back in action on Friday, March 30, returning to Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play as it hosts Geneva College for a 3 p.m. contest at Tomcat Park.