GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team split a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader with the Bethany Bison Saturday afternoon at Tomcat Park.
Before the doubleheader, Thiel honored 12 seniors for Senior Day.
Thiel notched a 13-1 victory over Bethany in the first game behind 14 hits.
Trent Smith (Franklin, Pa./Franklin) pushed Thiel out to the early lead in the first inning when he smacked a solo home run over the left center field fence.
After Bethany tied up the game in the third inning, Thiel scored 12 unanswered runs to seal the victory. Thiel plated six runs in the bottom of the third.
Dan Koller (Euclid, Ohio/Lake Catholic) drove in the first run of the third on a bases-loaded single to left field that scored
Sam Passafiume (Medina, Ohio/Medina). Smith followed with a double to deep center field that allowed
Bryan Mitchell (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) and
Daniel Patrice (Munich, Germany/ESIT) to cross the plate.
Josh Doody (Grove City, Pa. /Grove City) and
Brian Genco (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville) hit back-to-back doubles with two outs to score three runs.
Thiel scored four runs in the fourth inning. Koller knocked in two of those runs on a double down the left field line that plated Patrice and Mitchell. Two batters later,
Trent Mosley (South Euclid, Ohio/Brush) singled through the right side that brought Koller around to score. Mosley scored three batters later on a passed ball.
Thiel added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. After a Koller walk, Smith drove him home with a double to center field. Smith came home a batter later when Mosley reached on a throwing error by the shortstop.
Jaden Nozicka (Portage, Mich./Portage Central) earned his fifth win of the season. Nozicka struck out four and only allowed one run in six innings of work.
Alex Yoder (Canton, Ohio/St. Thomas Aquinas) pitched an inning of relief for Nozicka and didn't allow a run.
Bethany broke a tie in the top of the seventh inning with two runs in the second game to win 5-3 over Thiel.
Passafiume knocked in the first run of the second game in the bottom of the second inning when he singled to center field to score Doody.
Bethany took the lead in the fourth inning when they scored three runs. Thiel answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie up the game at three. Patrice plated Doody on a single to left field.
Jake Marino (Pittsfield, Pa./Youngsville) followed with a RBI single up the middle that scored Passafiume.
Bethany scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead and held Thiel scoreless in the bottom of the seventh inning to get the win.
Passafiume notched two hits in the second game while Doody scored twice in the loss.
Thiel finished the regular season 28-12 overall and 17-7 in the conference to earn the second seed in the PAC Championship Tournament. The tournament starts on Thursday, May 12 in Crestview Hills, Ky. on the campus of Thomas More College.
