A pair of two-RBI hits and strong pitching propelled the Washington & Jefferson baseball team to a 4-1 victory over host Salisbury in the opening game of an NCAA Division III regional in Maryland.

Mullen Socha hit a two-run single in the third to give the Presidents a 2-0 lead. In the eighth, after Salisbury had cut the lead to 2-1 the previous inning, James Artale launched a two-run homer to put W&J up 4-1. It was Artale’s sixth homer of the season.

That was enough to back starter Ben Marsico (7 innings) and relievers Mitchell Taufer and Clay Martin, who threw a scoreless inning each. For Martin, it was his eighth save

W&J, the Presidents’ Athletic Conference champion, faces Rowan on Saturday.

La Roche, meanwhile, dropped a 4-0 decision to Denison in its regional opener in Adrian, Mich. Denison got all four of its runs across the fourth and fifth innings to spoil an otherwise-solid effort from Redhawks starter Tristin Tinney.

The Redhawks, the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference champion, will play a losers’ bracket game Saturday.

In the Division II Atlantic Regional, Mercyhurst got seven shutout innings from Matthew Minnick and two scoreless relief innings from Jared Kapturasky to win its opener, 2-0 over Millersville. Domenic DeRenzo drove in one run and scored the other.

The Lakers face Bloomsburg Saturday.

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