BOX SCORE (Game One)
BOX SCORE (Game Two)
St. David’s, Pa. (Apr. 9, 2007) – Alvernia College amassed 37 hits and 41 runs in a convincing doubleheader sweep at Eastern University Monday afternoon, defeating the Eagles 25-1 and 16-3 in Pennsylvania Athletic Conference baseball action.
Junior Zach Lutz (Mohnton, PA/Governor Mifflin) led the offense going 6-for-8 on the day with seven runs scored, nine RBIs, and a pair of home runs. The 6-2 pitcher also threw five shutout innings in the opener striking out five while allowing just one hit and zero walks. Junior catcher Dale Curry (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) finished the day with five hits in seven at-bats including a game one grand slam, his third homer of the season.
Freshman hurler Shane Zellers (Wiconisco, PA/Williams Valley) picked up the win in game two throwing five innings and giving up two unearned runs on four hits and three walks.
Eight different players had three or more hits for the Crusaders (16-7, 8-3 PAC) on the day and five players scored five or more runs.
Alvernia scored the first run of the day in the second inning of game one and exploded for five runs in each of the next two innings fueled by Lutz’s home run in the third inning and Curry’s grand slam in the fourth. As Lutz continued to hold the Eagles (5-14, 4-5 PAC) off the board, the offense continued to roll posting 10 runs in the top half of the fifth inning for a 21-0 lead. In the inning, the Crusaders sent 16 batters to the plate with each player scoring at least once while senior shortstop Chris Raniere (Manlapan, NJ/St. John Vianney) crossed the plate twice in the frame.
Alvernia added four runs in the sixth and Eastern finally broke through with a single run in the bottom of the sixth. Lutz faced just one batter over the minimum during his five innings of work aided by a ground ball double play in the fifth.
The Alvernia offense didn’t wait as long in game two with the first three batters scoring to open the game. Lutz knocked in Tim Carroll (Bensalem, PA/Conwell-Egan) with a single and a pair of sac flies brought in Steve DeBarberie (Drexel Hill, PA/Monsignor Bonner) and Lutz. In the second inning, Carroll and DeBarberie both reached with two outs before Lutz launched his second home run of the day for a 6-0 lead.
The Eagles scored twice in the fourth and their run in the sixth cut the Alvernia lead to 11-3 before the Crusaders posted their third five-run inning of the day for the 16-3 final.
Alvernia will host Eastern for a single game on Tuesday before a non-conference game at DeSales University on Wednesday.
Game One – Alvernia 25, Eastern 1
Game Two – Alvernia 16, Eastern 3
