Baseball Opens WVIAC Tourney With Win Over WV Wesleyan

05/12/2012

Drew Westover (Flinton, Pa.) had two doubles and drove in two and the Mountain Cats took advantage of four West Virginia College errors in a 5-3 victory to open the 2011 WVIAC Tournament Thursday night at Linda K. Epling Stadium in Beckley, W.Va. Drew Shaulis (Somerset, Pa.) three a complete-game and fanned 12 to help Pitt-Johnstown improve to 21-24.
A lead-off double by Gary Williams Jr. and a single up the middle off the bat of Ryan Lewicki gave West Virginia Wesleyan a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. That lead was short-lived because the Mountain Cats answered with two in the bottom of the frame on Westover's double to the right-centerfield gap that scored Zach Vignero (Johnstown, Pa.) and Zach Martin (Irwin, Pa.).
That score stayed the same until Gene Franks' double chased home Williams Jr. from first to knot it at two in the sixth.
Pitt-Johnstown came right back with a pair of unearned runs in in the bottom of the sixth. Andy Rubal (Johnstown, Pa.) scored on a throwing error by Bobcats' catcher Will Blankenship, and Vignero followed with an RBI groundout to make it 4-2.
West Virginia Wesleyan cut it to 4-3 on Gene Franks' run-producing single in the seventh, but the Mountain Cats got it back in the eighth on a Martin RBI single to set the final at 5-3.
Shaulis tossed a complete-game and allowed just three runs on four hits to improve to 7-5. He struckout 12 and walked just two.
Martin went 3-for-4 with an RBI, and Westover doubled twice and drove in two to lead Pitt-Johnstown.
With the loss, West Virginia Wesleyan slipped to 24-19.
Pitt-Johnstown continues pool play in the 2011 WVIAC Tournament against North No. 4 West Liberty (WV) University on Friday at 8 p.m. and South No. 1-seeded West Virginia State University on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

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