CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to knock off Delaware State and sweep the four-game series on a chilly Sunday afternoon, 2-1.
Behind 1-0 and down to their last three outs, the Blue Hose led off the ninth with a Weston Jackson (Greer, S.C.) double down the left field line. Catcher TJ Richardson (Sugar Hill, Ga.) laid down a sac bunt that pitcher Lane De Leon mishandled to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Guy Casaceli (Jupiter, Fla.) replaced Richardson on the basepaths and brother Glen Casaceli (Jupiter, Fla.) headed to the plate, where the sophomore second baseman looped a pitch to right center to tie the game and move Guy to third. Delaware State brought in Darrien Ragins for De Leon, but Jay Lizanich (Greer, S.C.) chopped the second pitch he saw for a walkoff infield single and a 2-1 victory.
PC improves to 4-0 with the win and hosts Wofford on Wednesday at 2 p.m. to wrap a five-game season-opening homestand. Delaware State falls to 0-4.
Blue Hose pitching helped win the day, matching a Division I program record with 13 strikeouts as a staff. Sophomore Ethan Wortkoetter (Greer, S.C.) earned the win by pitching the top of the eighth and striking out all three Hornets to move to 1-0. Aaron Lesiak (Greenville, S.C.) turned in an impressive start, scattering seven hits over six innings and allowing one run with a career-high six strikeouts. Hayden Deal and Wortkoetter each struck out the side in their respective innings of work and Cole Norwood (Darlington, S.C.) picked up a K in a perfect eighth inning.
Lizanich led PC at the plate with a 3-for-4 effort. Cam McRae (Darlington, S.C.) and Glen Casaceli each added two hits.
The Hornets scored in the first inning, stringing together two singles before a Chris Gonzalez single scored Charlest Dailey from third base. In a running theme, however, Lesiak induced a pop fly to strand a runner 90 feet away from home for the third out.
Lesiak picked up two strikeouts in the third before running into trouble in the fourth, when two singles allowed the Hornets to move runners to second and third with one out. The righthander got Devin Beverly to swing at a 2-2 pitch for the second out and forced a harmless pop fly to get out of the jam and keep the gap at one.
Delaware State stranded two more runners in the fifth before a double play in the sixth cleared the bases and allowed PC to hand the game to its capable bullpen and its ninth-inning comeback heroics.
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Delaware State...... 100 000 000 - 1 7 1 (0-4)
Presbyterian College 000 000 002 - 2 10 0 (4-0)
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Pitchers: Delaware State - DILL,Travis; COVERDALE,Garrett(6); DeLEON,Lane(7); RAGINS,Darrien(9)
and RAMSEY,Tyler; BARBER,Sam. Presbyterian College - LESIAK, Aaron; DEAL, Hayden(7);
NORWOOD, Cole(8); WORTKOETTER, Ethan(9) and RICHARDSON, TJ.
Win-WORTKOETTER, Ethan(1-0) Loss-DeLEON,Lane(0-1) T-2:30 A-85
Weather: Mid-30s, clear and bright
DeLEON,L. faced 3 batters in the 9th.
RAGINS,D. faced 1 batter in the 9th.
