BOX SCORE

West Lawn, Pa. (May 6, 2011) - Fourth-seeded Elizabethtown College (19-18) scored six runs over the final five innings and held off a late surge from top-seeded Alvernia University (33-7) in a 6-5 win Friday evening in game five of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships at Owls Field.

The Jays scored twice in the fifth then had two runners in scoring position with no one out and a full count on catcher Dillon Tagle when lightning caused an hour-plus delay.  Tagle fouled off the first offering from senior closer Austin Rohrbach (Maxatawny, Pa./Kutztown) then flipped the next pitch into left center to plate a pair.

Rohrbach hit the next batter then got out of the inning with two straight strikeouts and a flyout.

The Crusaders bats--which had only scratched out one run on four hits before the delay--were glad to see Etown starter Rob Cressman take a seat after the lightning, and wasted little time getting to reliver Joey Seremula.

An RBI-single from Matt O'Neill (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) finished the short outing for Seremula and Etown went to its closer Todd Leister with eight outs to go.  Leister got Leon Stimpson (Philadelphia, Pa./Malvern Prep) on a pop up to first, but consecutive singles from Brian Witkowski (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) and Chris Ray (Exton, Pa./Henderson) chased home another run and loaded the bases for Travis Wrambel (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown).

Leister retired Wrambel on a strikeout to preserve the 5-3 lead and both teams went in order in the eighth.

Etown tacked on an insurance run on two hits and a Crusader error in the ninth, but Rohrbach limited the damange with a nifty double-play ball turned by senior middle infielders Reid Martin (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) and Tim Ahlquist (Millville, N.J./Millville).

O'Neill and Stimpson both walked with one out and Ray drove in another run with a single to center.  Stimpson came in to score on a passed ball that moved the tying run to second, but Leister again fanned Wrambel, this time to end the game.

Etown will face #2 Messiah in the championship round on Saturday needing two wins to claim the conference title and automatic bid into the NCAA Regional.  Messiah needs just one win to close the deal.  Alvernia will await a possible at-large bid into the NCAAs.

#4 Elizabethtown 6, #1 Alvernia 5