BOX SCORE 

West Lawn, Pa. (May 6, 2011) - Junior righty Andrew Kirk (Media, Pa./Penncrest) fanned 16 batters and top-seeded Alvernia University (33-6) bounced back with a 9-1 victory over defending champion and third-seeded Widener University (24-14) in the first elimination game of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships at Owls Field.

Kirk opened the game with four straight strikeouts and had at least one in every inning.  Offensively the Crusaders got at least one hit from everyone in the lineup while Travis Wrambel (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown) homered for the second straight game.

Alvernia stays alive and will face its second straight elimination game Friday evening at 7:30 against the loser of the winners bracket final between #2 Messiah and #4 Elizabethtown.

The Crusaders opened the scoring Friday morning scoring two in the second on a Widener error and a sacrifice fly.  Then plated three in the third for a 5-0 lead, the big blow a two-run triple off the bat of Eric Domitrovits (Northampton, Pa./Northampton).

The lead grew to 6-0 on Wrambel's homer in the fifth and Widener finally put together back-to-back hits in the seventh to plate its first run of the game.  Kirk only allowed four hits all day and went the distance giving up just the one run.

Five players had multi-hit games for the Crusaders including Domitrovits and Leon Stimpson (Philadelphia, Pa./Malvern Prep) who both had two hits and two RBIs.

#1 Alvernia 9, #3 Widener 1