WASHINGTON, Pa. – Mount Union's baseball team was swept by No. 17 ranked Washington & Jefferson by scores of 4-3 and 8-5 in a pair of seven inning games Sunday at Ross Memorial Park.
The Purple Raiders (0-2) rallied with three runs in the top of the seventh in game one before falling 4-3, then the Presidents (2-0) used a five-run third and three-run fifth for an 8-5 win in the night cap.
Trey Weaver (Franklin, Pa. / Franklin Area) and Nate Duliba (Berea / Berea-Midpark) each had four hits on the day. Weaver also drove in three runs.
In the opener, W&J got two in the first and a run in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead. Mount Union got one back in the top of the sixth on a Walker Marlowe (Berlin Center / Western Reserve) single, but the Presidents' answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning to lead 4-3 heading into the final frame.
Duliba had a two-out, two-run single to make it 4-3 and was the tying run on base when the game ended.
Henry Litman struck out six over the first five innings to get the win while Kamden Kautz got the final six outs for the save.
Thomas Gallant (Pataskala / Watkins Memorial) had six strikeouts in the loss for the Raiders.
Mount Union jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game two as Weaver had an RBI ground out in the first, Coleman Stauffer (Boardman) an RBI double in the second, then Weaver and Eric Schilling (Stow / Stow-Munroe Falls) each had RBI's in the third.
W&J would come back and take the lead with a five-run third as Evan Sante had a grand slam. Sante finished the game with six RBI.
Mount Union tied the game on a Weaver home run in the top of the fifth, but again W&J would answer, this time with a three-run bottom of the fifth to put the game out of reach.
Jackson Denney picked up the win in relief and Dante DiMatteo did not allow a hit the final two innings for the save.
Carson Davis (Louisville) allowed eight runs, six earned, in 4.1 innings to take the loss.
Mount Union is next scheduled to host Case Western Reserve in a doubleheader, Sunday, Feb. 27 at Rafeld-Rogers Field.
