BOX SCORE

Reading, Pa. (Apr. 15, 2011) - Juniors Jeff Smith (Sinking Spring, Pa./Holy Name) and Matt O'Neill (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) watched eight innings of a pretty good game from the bench Friday afternoon then figured prominently in its ending.

Both players entered as defensive replacements along with closer Austin Rohrbach (Maxatawny, Pa./Kutztown) to protect a two-run lead.  Rohrbach gave up a bases-loaded single to left to Widener senior Jason Brooke with two out in the ninth.  Smith charged and came up with a strike to O'Neill to nail the potential game-tying run and end the game, a 5-4 win for #16/19 Alvernia University (23-3, 10-0) over Widener (20-9, 8-5) in Commonwealth Conference baseball action at Angelica Park.

The game started as a pitchers' duel between Alvernia junior Andrew Kirk (Media, Pa./Penncrest) and Widener junior Jason Ferrie.  Both pitchers through zeros on the board through the first four innings.  Ferrie faced one more than the minimum while Kirk worked through a few rough patches.

Kirk walked the game's first batter and hit the second, but got three straight outs to end the threat.  The Pride had a runner in scoring position with two out in the third, but Tom DeAngelis ran over Alvernia thirdbaseman Chris Ray (Exton, Pa./Henderson) and was called out on runners interference to end the inning.

Widener finally scored the first run of the game in the fifth.  The leadoff batter reached on a single when Kirk eleveated a breaking pitch then after a walk, Kirk unleased a wild pitch to move runners to second and third with no one out.  An RBI-groundout from Tom Mahoney ensued, but Kirk limited the damage with a pop out and a strikeout to end the inning.

The Pride missed a chance to widen the lead in the sixth getting back-to-back walks to open the inning, but Kirk caught the lead runner leaning and picked him off before ending the inning again with a pop out to second and a strikeout.

Alvernia knotted the scored at 1-1 in the home half of the sixth.  Leon Stimpson (Philadelphia, Pa./Malvern Prep) coaxed the first walk of the day from Ferrie with one out and took second on Brian Witkowski's (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) bunt single.  Ray loaded the bases with an infield single and Chris Gehris (Sinking Spring, Pa./Holy Name) hustled down the line to beat out a potential double play ball that allowed Stimpson to score.

Widener answered right back against Kirk in the top of the seventh.  Again the first two batters reached, this time on a pair of singles.  Kirk got a pop out and a groundout and could see his way out of the inning, but his first-pitch fastball to Eric Von Stetina came right back through the box for a two-run, two-out single.

The Crusaders came right back in support of Kirk putting runners on second and third with two out after Julian Faria's (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) double to left.  Stimpson followed with a clutch two-out single to tie the game at 3-3.

Alvernia took its first lead of the game with two runs in the bottom of the eight scoring on back-to-back RBI singles from Reid Martin (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) and Travis Wrambel (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown).

Rohrbach entered in the top of the ninth and walked the leadoff hitter.  Von Stetina doubled to put runners at second and third with one out and Rohrbach took care of Sean Saverio with a strikeout.  The Crusaders intentionally walked Dan Sieracki with two out to load the bases and Brooke followed with the single to left that ended the game.

The three game series continues Sunday at Widener.  The Saturday doubleheader has already been postponed due to a 90 percent chance of rain in the forecast and will start Sunday at 1:00 at Widener.

#16/19 Alvernia 5, Widener 4