BOX SCORE

West Lawn, Pa. (May 6, 2010) - Third-seeded Elizabethtown College (23-14) scored eight runs in the fourth inning and took a nine-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, but still needed a save for a 14-10 win over #2 Alvernia University (32-9) Thursday evening in game two of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships at Owls Field.

The Crusaders scored two in the first on a long home run to left in the first inning off the bat of junior centerfielder Nole Saylor (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) and took a 4-1 lead with two more in the bottom of the third.

The Blue Jays came back with an eight-run fourth fueled by three hits, four walks, and an Alvernia error.

The lead grew to 12-5 when the Jays scored three in the sixth and 14-5 when they tacked on two more in the ninth.

The Jays got the first out of the ninth, but the Crusaders followed with back-to-back doubles for a run then later in the inning hit a pair of two-run doubles off the bats of Steve Bealer (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown) then Matt Bruno (Norristown, Pa./Methacton) to pull within four at 14-10.

Tim Ahlquist (Millville, N.J./Millville) and Brian Witkowski (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) walked to load the bases and bring Chris Ray (Exton, Pa./West Chester Henderson) to the plate as the tying run.  The Jays went to Ryan Barrett in relief and after painting the corners with a pair of fastballs the senior righty dropped the bottom out of the 0-2 pitch to get Ray.

Bealer and Witkowski finished with two hits each for the Crusaders and Saylor finished 3-for-4.  Freshman Andrew Kirk (Media, Pa./Penncrest) took the loss.

Alvernia comes back Friday morning at 11:00 to face top-seeded Widener, a 22-10 loser to #4 Messiah, while the Jays square off with Messiah at 3:00 Friday afternoon.

#3 Elizabethtown 14, #2 Alvernia 10