Saint Vincent baseball rallies to reach PAC finals

Saint Vincent isn’t quite ready to cash in its chips.

The Bearcats baseball team rallied for two wins Friday in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament and, all of the sudden, will play for the championship.

Fourth-seeded SVC (17-17) staved off elimination twice by defeating No. 3 Franciscan, 13-4, and No. 2 Grove City, 8-5.

The Bearcats will circle back to play the team they lost to in the first round, 7-3, in No. 1 seed and host team Washington & Jefferson (35-1), at 1 p.m. Saturday.

They would have to upend the Presidents twice to win the title.

In the Franciscan win, sophomore Jordan Sabol (Penn-Trafford) went 4 for 5, and seniors TJ Dailey and Matt Evans each had three hits as the Bearcats raked 20 hits and jumped out to a 9-3 lead after two innings.

Daily homered and had five RBIs and junior Justin Wright (Hempfield) had three, and Sabol and Evans scored three times apiece.

Evans came on in relief of junior Zach Barberich to earn his sixth save with three scoreless innings.

Against Grove City, Evans again pitched in relief and helped the Bearcats protect a one-run lead as Grove City (28-10) left the bases loaded.

Evans, who went on to earn his seventh save, later scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 5-3.

Sabol went 3 for 4, while freshman Julian Santana had two hits and two runs, and Dailey also had two hits.

Senior Tom Bash earned his seventh win for SVC, allowing three runs on seven hits.

The winner of Saturday’s series will automatically qualify for the NCAA Division III Regionals.

Griffins lose opener

The Seton Hill softball team fell victim to two big innings, struggled defensively by committing seven errors, and dropped the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship opener, 15-2, to visiting West Chester.

Game 2 of the best-of-3 series begins at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Seton Hill Softball Complex, with a third game to follow if needed.

West Chester (29-14) scored six times in the fourth and seventh innings to pull away from Seton Hill (32-13).

First baseman Courtney Stump went 4 for 5 with two RBIs, center fielder AnneMarie Hartman went 3 for 4 with a double and three runs scored, and catcher Haleigh Karcher drove in two runs for the Golden Rams, who had 15 hits.

Senior Allison Kapoll, who went 2 for 4, homered for the Griffins to cut the deficit to 9-2 in the fifth.