WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Thiel College baseball team spilt a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) doubleheader against the 17^th-ranked Washington & Jefferson College Presidents Saturday afternoon. Thiel dropped game one 19-2 before taking the second game 6-5.
 
With the split, the Tomcats clinched a spot in the 2017 PAC Baseball Championship Tournament.
 
Game one saw the Presidents jump out to a 7-0 lead after one inning.
 
The Presidents added three more runs in the second, two of which came off a Jake Gordon homerun to center field.
 
The Tomcats went on to score two runs in the first game on RBIs by Bryan Mitchell (Cleveland, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) and Zach Hudecek (Gibsonia, Pa./Deer Lakes).
 
Tomcat Starter Kevin Forrester (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) took the oss and Presidents starter collected the win as he went five innings and allowed one earned run on two hits.
 
Game two started with the Tomcats going scoreless in the first before the Presidents were only able to add one run in an inning that saw two errors by the Tomcats. The Presidents left a runner on third as the Tomcats turned two on a grounder to the left side to get out of the inning.
 
Mitchell gave the Tomcats their first run of the game when he singled through the right side to score Andrew Giesey (Penn, Pa./Penn Trafford) in the third. The Presidents answered in the bottom of the inning when Derek Helbing singled through the right side to score Nick Gatins, who tripled to center field to get in scoring position. The Presidents led 2-1 after three.
 
In the fifth, Thiel tied the game (2-2) on a ground-rule double by Giesey that scored Filippo Costanzo (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick). Later in the fifth, Alex Lam (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) singled to left field to score two runs. Mitchell collected another RBI on the day as he singled up the middle to score Lam. Thiel led 4-2 before Zach Hudecek (Gibsonia, Pa./Deer Lakes) smacked a two-run homerun to make it 6-2, Hudecek's home run was his team-leading fourth of the year.
 
The Presidents collected three runs in the bottom of the fifth to put them within one run, 6-5.

Starter Nick Bucci (Pittsburgh, Pa./Allderdice) managed to hold the lead as the Presidents went scoreless on just one hit over the final two innings. Bucci sent the Presidents down in order and collected two strikeouts before getting the final batter to fly-out to end the game and secure the Tomcats a spot in the conference tournament. 
 
Bucci picked up his PAC-leading ninth win of the year as he pitched a complete game and allowed two earned runs on nine hits with six strikeouts.
 
The Tomcats (21-16, 13-10 PAC) will return to action on Sunday when they take on the Presidents at Tomcat Park for the final game of a three-game set and the PAC regular season. The nine-inning game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.