Baseball 6/11/2013 12:25:00 PM

Martin's Walk-Off Homer Gives Mountain Cats Split with Wheeling Jesuit

04/17/2011

After suffering a 2-1 loss in Sunday's opener against Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University at the Point Stadium, Zach Martin (Irwin, Pa.) hit a three-run, pinch-hit, walk-off homerun in then bottom of the seventh inning to break a tie game and give the Mountain Cats a split with a 5-2 win. Pitt-Johnstown is now 12-21 overall and 8-11 in the WVIAC North.
In game one, Dustin Phillips scored from second on Mark Gira's single to left center to give Wheeling Jesuit a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning. The Mountain Cats tied it in the bottom of the inning on Zach Vignero's (Johnstown, Pa.) double that drove in Andy Rubal (Johnstown, Pa.).
Ryan Venderlic's RBI single in the fifth put the Cardinals up 2-1.
That's all Wheeling Jesuit needed. Tim Geigel got the win after pitching four innings and giving up one run on just three hits. Steve Buffo picked-up his first save. Buffo tossed the final three innings and didn't allow a run on two hits.
Rubal had two hits, and Vignero had Pitt-Johnstown's lone RBI.
Jon Moore (Leechburg, Pa.) fell to 1-3. Moore pitched a complete and surrendered two runs on seven hits.
In the nightcap, Wheeling Jesuit went up 1-0 in the second on Drew Nemecek's solo homer over the left field screen, before adding another one in the fourth on an RBI single by Robbie Davia.
The Mountain Cats cut it in half on Drew Shaulis' (Somerset, Pa.) single to left that scored Nick Barbera (Harrisburg, Pa.) in the bottom of the fourth and tied it on Drew Westover's (Flinton, Pa.) RBI single in the fifth.
In the bottom of the seventh, Seth Roy (Bedford, Pa.) led off with a double, and Barbera was intentionally walked. Martin then entered the game as a pinch hitter and belted a three-run homer over the right field fence off of Cardinals' reliever Shane Sulllivan to give Pitt-Johnstown the 5-2 win.
Vignero, Roy, Barbera and Rubal all had two hits, and Shaulis had a hit an an RBI.
Derek Younker (Big Cove Tanner, Pa.) earned his first collegiate win and improved to 1-2 after tossing a complete game. Younker gave up just two runs on four hits and fanned four.
With the split, Wheeling Jesuit is now 11-17 overall and 9-11 in thenWVIAC Northern Division.
Pitt-Johnstown will host a conference doubleheader against Concord (WV) University on Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Point Stadium, before traveling to Alderson-Broaddus (WV) College on Friday and Saturday for a three-game WVIAC Northern Division series.

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