Just call Evan Virno "The Baserunner Eraser."

In his first outing of the season, the senior escaped a big ninth-inning jam without retiring a batter, then earned the win when Muhlenberg scored a run in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-6 win against Washington College in the first game of a doubleheader. 

The Mules (9-17, 4-6) completed the sweep with an 8-3 victory in the second game behind strong starting pitching and three home runs.

Muhlenberg erased a 6-0 deficit in the opener by scoring six runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Shoremen (17-15, 5-5), though, threatened to retake the lead when they put runners on second and third with one out in the top of the ninth.

In came Virno for his first appearance on the mound in 351 days. Before throwing a pitch to the batter, he picked off the runner at third base. Virno's third pitch to the batter was in the dirt, and the runner on second tried to advance to third, but junior catcher Spencer Hobson recovered the ball quickly and fired to sophomore third baseman Steven Dimovski, who slapped on another tag to retire the side. 

Sophomore Sean Habeeb drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the bottom of the ninth and advanced to third on a dropped pickoff throw and a balk. After two intentional walks, sophomore Mike Carcich was hit by a pitch to force home the winning run.

The walkoff gave Virno (pictured above) his first win since his freshman season of 2023. His final line: two-thirds of an innings pitched, no batters faced, one win.

The ending was made possible by Muhlenberg's eighth-inning rally, which came out of nowhere. The Mules were held to one hit through the first seven innings and had a runner on first with one out in the eighth when sophomore Marius Haughton singled. After a walk, senior Thomas Pranzo delivered a two-run single to get Muhlenberg on the board. 

Two more walks, one to sophomore Thomas Rorick with the bases loaded, made it 6-3. Dimovski brought in two more runs with a double, and the tying run scored on a wild pitch.

It was the first time ever in a Centennial Conference game that the Mules came back to win after trailing by more than five runs after seven innings.

Senior Joseph Stern gave Muhlenberg a chance at coming back by throwing 3.1 innings of scoreless relief.

The Mules trailed 1-0 when they came to bat in the bottom of the first inning of the nightcap, but one swing by Carcich changed that: He hit a three-run homer, the first of his career.

Washington came back to tie the score at 3-all before Habeeb brought in the go-ahead run with a double in the fourth. Solo home runs by Carcich and freshman Danny Cutrupi - an opposite-field shot for his first career round-tripper - extended the lead to 6-3 in the fifth, and Pranzo hit another two-run single to cap the scoring in the eighth.

Sophomore Shane Ohl pitched a career-high seven innings to earn the win, allowing only five hits to a Washington squad that came in averaging more than 10 runs per game. Junior Frank Kern worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, catching a screaming line drive up the middle to end the inning.