May 4, 2009
Wolverines earn tournament berth
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College baseball team earned the fourth and final berth in the Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Tournament by picking up a 12-8 victory over visiting Bethany Monday afternoon in PAC action at College Field.
Grove City improved to 9-9 in the PAC with the win and will face top-seeded Washington & Jefferson Thursday at 3 p.m. in the semifinals of the PAC Tournament. The Wolverines are the No. 4 seed in the tournament by virtue of a 2-1 head-to-head tiebreaker over Waynesburg, which also went 9-9 in the conference.
Monday, Grove City trailed 3-2 in the third inning before rebounding with a six-run outburst in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore catcher Marcus Magister (Allison Park, Pa./Hampton) put Grove City (16-17 overall) ahead to stay with a two-run home run, his 12th homer of the season.
Sophomore second baseman Andrew Patterson (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley Christian), senior center fielder Seth Thompson (Canton, Ohio/GlenOak) and sophomore right fielder Scott Moran (Columbia, Md./Chapelgate Christian) all added run-scoring singles in the inning while junior third baseman Mark Scriven (Gibsonia, Pa./Dutch Fork, S.C.) also plated a run on a squeeze play.
Senior first baseman Brad Stombaugh (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) roped a two-run single in the seventh, capping his 4-for-5 day. Stombaugh scored three runs and also drove in three.
Patterson went 3 for 5 while Thompson, Moran and Magister all had two hits each. Thompson also stole four bases. Scriven added a double as the Wolverines collected 16 hits.
Senior pitcher Zach Hillegas (Bridgeport, W. Va./Bridgeport) earned the win in relief. He allowed three runs and three hits in four innings. Sophomore Kyle Silk (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley Christian) started and pitched four innings. Senior Matt Tindall (Copley, Ohio/Copley) pitched a perfect ninth.
Magister tied the Grove City single-season record with his 12 home runs. Nate Kauffman hit 12 homers during the 2001 season. Stombaugh now has 54 hits this year, which is the second-highest single-season total in program history. Brian Moran collected 59 hits last year.
Grove City will host Geneva Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the regular-season finale at College Field.
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