GREENVILLE, Pa. -- The Grove City College baseball team scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning Thursday afternoon at Thiel but the Wolverines fell a run short as Thiel held on for an 8-7 Presidents' Athletic Conference victory at Tomcat Park. Grove City (16-8, 7-4 PAC) stranded the tying run at second base in the ninth inning. 

Grove City trailed 8-2 after eight innings before beginning the comeback. Freshman center fielder Nico Rodriguez (Stafford, Va./Mountain View) scored the first run of the inning when he came in on a single by senior left fielder Jesse Clary (Cranberry Township, Pa./Eden Christian). 

Junior Anthony Tambellini (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) followed with a pinch-hit two-run double that drove in Clary and sophomore shortstop Lucca Baccari (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford). Sophomore DH Markus Williams (Sewickley, Pa./Eden Christian) doubled in Tambellini and a double by freshman third baseman Mally Kilbane (Olmsted Falls, Ohio/Olmsted Falls) scored Williams.

Kilbane and Williams both finished 2 for 5 while Baccari finished 2 for 4. Junior catcher C.J. Saylor (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) and freshman second baseman Luke Vittone (Seven Fields, Pa./Eden Christian) both doubled for the Wolverines, who finished with 11 hits. 

Freshman pitcher Evan Umland (Pasadena, Calif./La Canada) pitched 5 1/3 innings for Grove City and took the setback. He struck out five and yielded five runs. Junior Elijah White (Zelienople, Pa./Portersville Christian) allowed one run in an inning of relief. Sophomore Nate Hamel (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper Saint Clair) pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up two runs.

Grove City will host Thiel at 1 p.m. Saturday in a conference doubleheader at Jack Behringer Field.