BOX SCORE
West Lawn, Pa. (May 7, 2010) - It's hard to use the word snowball on a 70 degree day, but that's how it seemed to go for Alvernia University (32-10) which, for the second day in a row, gave up one big inning in a 5-3 loss to top-seeded Widener University Friday in the first elimination game of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships at Owls Field.
Senior starter
Shane Zellers (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) was cruising through the first four innings needing just 18 pitches to get through the first two innings. He allowed a walk in the third and two in the fourth, but not a single hit under
Colin Keelan checked one 50 feet down the third base line to lead off the fifth.
Tom Mahoney bounced the next pitch to short, but
Reid Martin's (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) effort to start the 6-4-3 missed
Tim Ahlquist (Millville, N.J./Millville) at second and the Pride started to build momentum.
Zellers fanned the nine-hole hitter for the first out of the inning, but gave up an infield single and walked the next man to force in the first run. Still leading 3-1, but with the bases loaded, he went to work on
Sean Saverio, who fouled off three pitches before lifting a 2-2 offering to center to clear the bases.
Zellers settled back in with back-to-back strikeouts, but the damage was done and the Pride led 4-3.
Alvernia had the tying run on base in each of the next three innings, but couldn't come through with the big hit.
Rick Kazigian went the distance for Widener throwing 132 pitches to record the win. The Pride will take on the loser of game four between #3 Elizabethtown and #4 Messiah.
Alvernia got the first run on the day in the third on Martin's RBI single and put up two more in the fourth on an RBI triple by
Brian Witkowski (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) and a sacrifice fly from
Chris Ray (Exton, Pa./West Chester Henderson).
Witkowski finished with two hits and Zellers struck out nine over seven and a third innings.
Alvernia will await an invitation into a postseason tournament.
#1 Widener 5, #2 Alvernia 3
