BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College baseball team took on first-place Washington & Jefferson on Thursday afternoon knowing it would need to play its best baseball of the season to pull out a victory, and for five innings the Golden Tornadoes did just that in building an early lead.  Unfortunately, Geneva couldn't hold off the strong-hitting Presidents squad, eventually losing 15-6.  W&J improved to 20-9, 15-1 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC), while Geneva fell to 6-19, 1-14 in the PAC.

W&J scored twice in the first inning off freshman starter Aaron Erimias (Hermitage, Pa./Hickory).  The Presidents got the first two batters on, who then executed a double steal, and each ended up scoring on back-to-back sacrifice flies.

Geneva responded with a run in the bottom of the first, but it could have had more.  Senior Jericho Hilling (Williamsburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg) singled home a run, but the Golden Tornadoes failed to push across anything more after having the bases loaded and one out, with a strikeout and a groundout ending the inning.

Erimias settled down and kept W&J off the scoreboard over the next four innings, at one point retiring 13 out of 16 batters.  Geneva took advantage, scoring three times in the fourth with two outs.  Sophomore Tyler Seliga (Belle Vernon, Pa./Belle Vernon) drove in two with a triple, and senior Mark Overmier (Crofton, Md./Mount St. Joseph) brought home Seliga with a single.  The Golden Tornadoes added another run in the fifth on an RBI from freshman Austin Willis (Temecula, Cali./Linfield Christian) to give Geneva a 5-2 lead.

Erimias appeared to tire in the top of the sixth, though.  After retiring the first batter, the next five batters reached base, one on a Geneva error.  Head Coach Alan Sumner brought in sophomore Jacob Cardenas (Homestead, Fla./Miami Killian) to try to get out of the inning, but with the bases loaded and two runs already in, W&J's Shayne Erny hit a high fly ball that got helped by the wind, and the ball just cleared the left field fence inside the foul pole for a grand slam, giving W&J an 8-5 lead.

Cardenas got out of the inning without more runs scoring, but the damage had been done and the momentum changed.  W&J broke the game open with five runs in the eighth, helped by three Geneva errors, and two more in the ninth, before sophomore Garrison Wieland (Sharpsville, Pa./Sharpsville) picked up an RBI in the bottom of the ninth to close out the scoring, 15-6.

Erimias picked up his first loss of the season, going 5.1 innings while giving up eight hits, six runs (five earned) and striking out four.  Hilling led the offense, going 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI.  Senior Dillon Taggart (Livingston Manor, N.Y./Livingston Manor Central) finished 2-for-5 with a run, while Seliga went 1-for-4 with the triple, a run and two RBIs.

"For the first five innings we were pretty good," said Coach Sumner.  "I thought Aaron pitched well, but we failed to make a couple of plays in the sixth that led to their big inning, and when you give a really good team like W&J extra chances, they will make you pay."

Geneva finishes the three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday at W&J.  First pitch is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 80 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs, and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top Three Best Value Regional University with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.