April 23, 2004
Wolverines clinch tournament berth
BETHANY, W. Va. -- Junior first baseman Joel Diller (Hartville, Ohio/Marlington) went 4-for-5 with a home run while sophomore pitcher Erik Arnesen (Princeton, N.J./Timothy Christian) fired a complete game as the Grove City College baseball team clinched a berth in next week's Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Tournament with a 6-4 win over PAC-leading Bethany Friday afternoon.
The victory assures Grove City one of four spots in next week's conference tournament, which will be hosted by the first-place squad at the end of the conference season. With a sweep of Bethany (18-14, 9-4 PAC) Saturday afternoon, Grove City (10-16, 7-6 PAC) could clinch home-field advantage for the tournament April 28-30. The Wolverines would need Washington and Jefferson (8-6 PAC) to lose at home to Thiel Saturday afternoon in order to earn the No. 1 seed.
Diller's solo homer in the top of the seventh broke a 4-4 tie, putting Grove City ahead to stay. His run-scoring single in the top of the first drove in senior Jake Cuthbert (Belle Vernon, Pa./Belle Vernon) and gave the Wolverines an early 1-0 lead.
Bethany took the lead with two unearned runs off Arnesen in the second but the Wolverines picked up a pair of runs in the fourth as sophomore Mike Ritter (Moon, Pa./Moon) cracked an RBI single while junior third baseman Jonathan Mycyk (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy) scored on a squeeze bunt from sophomore right fielder Greg Hrebinko (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon). Bethany re-took the lead in the fifth but Grove City tied the game during its subsequent at-bat as Ritter scored on a Cuthbert single.
Hrebinko knocked in Grove City's sixth run of the game with a single in the ninth.
Arnesen allowed just six hits and two earned runs in his first career complete game. He improved to 3-0 on the season.
Senior DH Greg Grupp (Harmony, Pa./Slippery Rock) went 3-for-5 while Cuthbert and Ritter both had two hits. The Wolverines accumulated 14 hits as a team.
Grove City closes PAC regular-season action Saturday with a home doubleheader against Bethany. The twinbill starts at 1 p.m.
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