In game one,
Aiden Coleman tossed 6.1 strong innings and Pitt-Johnstown banged out nine runs on 11 hits to lock up a 9-2 win, but Wheeling answered with a 6-5 walk-off win in eight innings to get the split.
Justin Turcovski went 5-for-8 with a homer and five RBI for the Mountain Cats, now 1-2.
Aidan Steinbugl's two-out single through the right side in the top of the third chased home
Brody Roberts to give the Mountain Cats a 1-0 lead.
Pitt-Johnstown loaded the bases in the fifth and broke it open with six runs, highlighted by
Calvin Iseminger's two-run single and
Nathan Helms' two run double.
Back-to-back RBI singles from Turcovski and
Devon Boyles in the Mountain Cat half of the sixth increased it to 9-0.
Coleman held the Cardinals to just one hit over the first six innings, before allowing two runs on Spencer Craig's double with one out in the sixth. Coleman, now 1-1, allowed only two hits, while striking out five and walking three.
Freshman
Zyler Freedman gave up a hit and a walk but got the final two got the final two outs in his collegiate debut.
Boyles had two hits and drove in two, and Steinbugl added a pair of hits and an RBI to lead Pitt-Johnstown. Turcovski, Iseminger, and Helms also drove in two runs each.
In game two, Pitt-Johnstown got another strong start, this time from
Jimmy Kunst, but Wheeling used five unearned runs to erase a four-run deficit to get the sweep.
Pitt-Johnstown took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on Turcovski's RBI single, before Turcovski belted the first pitch he saw off of Wheeling reliever Tomoki Jitsukawa over the right field wall in a three-run in a three-run fifth inning that gave the Mountain Cats a 4-0 advantage.
The Cardinals scratched out an unearned run off of Pitt-Johnstown starter
Jimmy Kunst in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 4-1.
Boyles got that run back with a two-out sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, but Wheeling took advantage of a pair of errors in the bottom of the frame to narrow it to 5-4 with three unearned runs.
Wheeling then got a two-out pinch-hit solo homer in the bottom of the seventh from Michael Norton off Pitt-Johnstown reliever
Antonio Caporossi to knot, 5-5, before another unearned run in the bottom of the eighth gave the Cardinals the walk-off win.
Turcovski went 4-for-four with a home and three RBI, and collected a pair of hits for Pitt-Johnstown.
Caporossi took the loss and slipped to 0-1 after surrendering three runs (1 earned) in 2.1 innings in relief. Kunst went the first 4.2 innings and gave up a run on three hits. He fanned seven and walked one in the no-decision.
With the split, Wheeling is now 1-1.
Pitt-Johnstown will close out the four-game, non-conference series against Wheeling (WV) with a doubleheader on Monday, then travel to Canton, Ohio to play doubleheaders against West Liberty (WV) on March 1 and Malone (OH) on March 2.
