Reading, Pa. (May 11, 2009) - The Alvernia University baseball team, champions of the Freedom Conference, are the seventh seed at the Mid-Atlantic Regional hosted by Kean University at FirstEnergy Stadium in Lakewood, N.J., and will face #2 Keystone College, winners of the Colonial States Athletic Conference.

Alvernia (26-15) will be making its sixth NCAA regional appearance entering with an overall record of 7-10 in regional action.  They will face the Giants (27-4), ranked ninth nationally by d3baseball.com and fourth by the American Baseball Coaches Association, in the fourth game of day one at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

Alvernia heads to the regional winners of six in a row and nine of the last 10. The Crusaders qualified for the Freedom Conference Championships as the third seed. They blew past Wilkes in the first game, 11-0, with sophomore Chuck Nicholas (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) throwing the third no-hitter in school history. Alvernia defeated FDU-Florham 7-3 in the winners bracket final and when weather postponed the tournament finish until last Saturday at home, the Crusaders defeated Manhattanville 4-3 behind an MVP performance from sophomore starter Chris Stoudt (West Lawn, Pa./Governor Mifflin).

The Crusaders are led by team MVP Steve Bealer (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) who enters the regional batting .377. He is one of seven players batting above .300 for the Maroon and Gold. Stoudt, Nicholas, and junior Shane Zellers (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley), the conference pitcher of the year, handle most of the starts for the Crusaders each with an ERA between 2.75 and 3.56. The staff ERA of 3.52 puts the Crusaders 14th in the nation.

For updated information on the regional consult the Alvernia tournament website.

Mid-Atlantic Regional
Wednesday May 13th
Game 1: 10:00am - #5 TCNJ vs. #4 Penn State-Behrend
Game 2: 1:15pm - #8 Penn State-Berks vs. #1 Kean
Game 3: 4:30pm - #6 Elizabethtown vs. #3 Montclair St.
Game 4: 7:45pm - #7 Alvernia vs. #2 Keystone

Thursday May 14th
Game 5: 10:00am - Loser Gm.1 vs. Loser Gm. 2
Game 6: 1:15pm - Loser Gm. 3 vs. Loser Gm. 4
Game 7: 4:30pm - Winner Gm. 1 vs. Winner Gm.s 2
Game 8: 7:45pm - Winner Gm. 3 vs. Winner Gm. 4

Friday May 15th
Game 9: 10am - Winner Gm. 6 vs. Loser Gm. 7
Game 10: 1:15pm - Winner 5 vs. Loser Gm. 8
Game 11: 4:30pm - Winner 7 vs. Winner Gm. 8
Game 12: 7:45pm - Winner Gm. 9 vs. Winner Gm. 10

Saturday May 16th
Game 13: 1pm - Loser Gm. 11 vs. Winner Gm. 12
Game 14: 5pm - Winner Gm. 11 vs. Winner Gm. 13

Sunday May 17th
Game 15: 1pm - Winner Gm. 14 vs. Loser Gm. 14 (if necessary)