GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team split a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader with Thomas More College on Saturday. The Saints won game one 6-5 in extra innings before the Tomcats rebounded to win game two by a final score of 3-0.
 
Thomas More opened the game with a one run first inning. Jacob Whitford singled to right field to score Casey Metzger to provide the 1-0 lead for the Saints after one.
 
The Tomcats had no answer in the first or second as they went down in order in both innings before the Saints scored another run in the third. The Saints collected three hits to load the bases before Sam Hauer walked to score Ben Laumann. Starter Kevin Forrester (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) then retired Ben Kenning on a called third strike to get out of the inning.
 
In the bottom of the third, Thiel scored Alex Lam (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) as Andrew Giesey (Penn, Pa./Penn Trafford) grounded out to the shortstop that pulled the Tomcats within one after three.
 
Thomas More opened up a four run lead in the fourth as Bailey Abbatiello doubled to left center that scored Blaise Ostertag before Metzger blasted a two-run homerun to left center. Thiel trailed 5-1 after four.
 
Reliever Michael Rohm (Lisbon, Ohio/David Anderson) held the Saints to no runs in the sixth before the Tomcats scored four in the bottom half of the inning to make it tied at 5-5. Bryan Mitchell (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) singled through the left side to later be driven by Daniel Patrice (Munich, Germany/EST) for the Tomcat's second run. Singles by Filippo Costanzo (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick), Nick Grice (McKeesport, Pa./McKeesport), and Patrice loaded the bases as Nick Fowkes (New Eagle, Pa./Ringgold) singled to right center that drove in a pair tie the game at 5-5.
 
Rohm held the Saints to no runs in the seventh to give the Tomcats a chance to walk-off in the bottom of the inning. Thiel was unable to take advantage as two batters went down on strikes and another was picked off at first to force the game into extras.
 
In extras Ostertag was hit by a pitch to take first. Tanner Wolfe's sacrifice bunt advanced Ostertag to second before Metzger singled to center field to score Ostertag for what became the game winning run.
 
The Tomcats went down in order to end the eighth as the Saints won game one 6-5.
 
Rohm picked up the loss as Ken Ruberg who came in relief of Logan Miller collected his first win of the year.
 
Game two saw Starter Nick Bucci (Pittsburgh, Pa./Allderdice) set the Saints down in order in the first with two strikeouts in the inning. Thiel followed up in the bottom of the inning leaving two runners on to keep the game tied at 0-0 after one.
 
The Tomcats broke the shutout up in the fourth as the bases were loaded for Jake Marino (Pittsfield, Pa./Youngsville) as he drew a walk that scored Patrice to make 1-0. Zach Hudecek (Gibsonia, Pa./Deer Lakes) was hit by his team leading 12^th pitch of the season to drive in another run to make it 2-0. Giesey then singled to right field to score Lam that gave the Tomcats a 3-0 advantage after four.

Bucci cruised through the final innings and did not give up a run in a complete game shutout of the Saints. Bucci allowed eight hits and collected six strikeouts in his PAC leading seventh win of the year.
 
Both Starters for the Tomcats in the doubleheader are currently in first and second in strikeouts with 49 for Forrester and 43 for Bucci.
 
Thiel (18-12, 10-6 PAC) will return to action on tomorrow when they take on the Saints at Tomcat Park to conclude the weekend series. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.