MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - The pivotal moment in Millersville's 10-0 PSAC Tournament win over Cal U came in the fourth inning with the game's result still very much in the balance. It was the moment when you need an ace, a stopper. And that's what Ben Wilchacky has very quickly become for the Marauders. 

With Millersville leading 4-0, the Vulcans loaded the bases with one out. With the tying run at the plate, Wilchacky sat down the next batter on three pitches and then won a six-pitch battle with another strikeout--one of his career-high 10. Wilchacky went on to toss seven innings--a complete game as Millersville put the tournament's run role into effect in the bottom of the seventh, scoring the clinching run on a wild pitch. 

"I thought today I caught glimpses of Ben getting tired," said Millersville head coach Jon Shehan. "His pitch count got up and Cal's leadoff guy did a great job fouling off a ton of pitches before that. That wasted almost an inning's worth of pitches, and Ben got worn out. In that spot, I almost took him out of the game. But (pitching coach) Ryan Kramer has done a good job building confidence in Ben. I give Kramer a lot of credit. He kept saying 'stick with him, stick with him,' and it paid off. Ben's maturing and growing up. When the wheels would fall off in the past couple of years, now he comes back and makes adjustments."

Wilchacky ran his record to 9-0 with the win, and he had plenty of run support. The Millersville scored double-digit runs for the fifth consecutive game, and every hitter in the lineup recorded at least one hit. A two-out base hit from Keegan Soltis scored Bren Taylor in the bottom of the first, and the Marauders were off and running. In the second, Tyler Wright looped a double down the left-field line to plate a run. Jimmy Losh singled in Wright, and Thomas Caufield delivered his 70th RBI of the season with a single of his own. 

In an elimination game where the loser's tournament ends, the early runs against Cal U's No. 1, Jacob McCaskey, lifted the pressure off the top-seeded Marauders.

"Getting the lead early was huge," said Shehan. "You can run a good arm out there, but they have to go up against four really good hitters, and then when you think you can take your foot off the gas, we have guys who can make you pay. Soltis got us started with a big hit in the first inning and took the pressure off early."

Soltis went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs. Catcher Cole Houser plated a run and went 2-for-4. Chase Simmons scored twice out of the No. 8 spot, and Wright, the No. 9 hitter, went 2-for-4, drove in a run, and scored twice. Bren Taylor stayed red-hot at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a walk, RBI, and two runs, giving him at least two hits in seven-straight games. Luke Trainer went 3-for-3. 

NOTES
• Millersville improved to 5-1 all-time against Cal U in the PSAC Tournament. The last time Millersville won a conference tournament game by 10-run rule was in the 2016 first round when it beat Cal U 22-4. 
• Caufield is one of just four players in program history with 70 RBIs in a season. 

UP NEXT
• With the win, the Marauders move on to the four-team, double-elimination portion of the tournament. Millersville and Slippery Rock play Thursday at 10 a.m. The winner moves on to the championship semifinals and plays Friday. The loser of the game returns Thursday evening to play an elimination game at 7 p.m.