BOX SCORE  | PHOTOS | CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

West Lawn, Pa. (May 2, 2013) - Junior lefty Mike Weinhold (Robesonia, Pa./Conrad Weiser) threw his second straight two-hit shutout and broke the single-season strikeout record leading top-seeded Alvernia University (31-9) to a 4-0 win over #4 Widener University (19-21) Thursday afternoon in game one of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championship at Owls Field.

Weinhold recorded 14 strikeouts--his fourth straight game with double digit Ks--and reached 97 for the season surpassing the previous record held by Alvernia Hall of Famer Todd Meyer who struck out 96 in 2002.  Already third in the country in strikeouts per nine innings, Weinhold did nothing to hurt his standing moving his number up to 14.55.

Weinhold and Widener starter Rob Barth appeared as though they would handle it all themselves each striking out the side in the first inning.  Weinhold did it blowing away the first three in the Pride lineup while Barth worked the off-speed in the dirt to fool the top of the Crusaders' lineup.  Widener's Michael Riverso was the first to put a ball into play when he grounded out to Alvernia shortstop Richie Ricciardi (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) to lead off the second. Weinhold handled the next two on his own with strikeouts four and five.

Alvernia junior Matt Patterson (Hamilton, N.J./Nottingham) was the first baserunner of the day reacing on a walk to start the home half of the second.  Ricciardi appeared to move him along to second with a one-out bunt up the first base line, but the throw from Barth him Ricciardi square in the back and he was ruled out for being inside the baseline.

Widener's Matt Hone registered the first base hit of the game fighting a Weinhold offering into right field with one out in the third, but he too was erased on interference.  Hone tried to swipe second, but Kyle Summers struck out and fell into the path of Alvernia catcher Chris Burns (Cherry Hill, N.J./Holy Cross) to end the inning on the interference call.

Alvernia finally opened the scoring in the third inning.  Senior Brian Witkowski (Ewing, N.J./Notre Dame) singled to the gap in right center and Barth walked the next two batters to load the bases.  Designated hitter Billy Turner (Columbia, N.J./North Warren Regional) followed with a two-run single up the middle giving Weinhold all he would need.

Weinhold threw 1-2-3 innings in the fourth, fifth, and sixth recording five strikeouts along the way then struck out the first batter in the seventh before surrendering his second hit of the game, an infield single to short.  Weinhold came back with another strikeout, his 13th of the game, and ended the seventh with a grounder to short.

Alvernia added a pair of runs in the seventh aided by two Widener errors.  With runners at second and third, Turner hit a pop up down the line in shallow left that the Widener third baseman had trouble with in the wind.  Burns and Witkowski, both running hard on the play, scored easily as the Crusaders doubled their lead.

Widener got the leadoff man on in the eighth on an error and Weihold followed with his 14th strikeout to set a new single-season Alvernia record with 97 then ended the inning with a fly ball and a groundout.

Sophomore closer Kevin Becker-Menditto (Frederick, Md./Walkersville), the recently-named Commonwealth Pitcher of the Year, also had to work around an inning-opening error to close the game in the ninth.  Defensive replacement Dustin Stuck (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra) struggled to pick up a grounder to his left, but then did well to start a 4-6-3 double play.  Becker-Menditto had to jump off the mound to field a grounder near the third base line and delivered in his customary submarine style to Patterson at first to end the game.

Witkowski had the only multi-hit game of the day going 2-for-2 with a pair of runs scored.  Turner had the only RBIs of the day on the two-run single in the third.  Weinhold improved to 8-1 on the season and dropped his ERA to 1.38.

Alvernia advances to the winners bracket final on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and will face the winner of the Thursday evening game between #2 Stevenson and #3 Arcadia.

#1 Alvernia 4, #4 Widener 0