BOX SCORE

York, Pa. (May 1, 2014) – Third-seeded Messiah College (16-17) got a complete game from Steven Ridings in an 8-2 win over #2 Alvernia University (25-12) Thursday evening in game two of the Commonwealth Conference Baseball Championships at Santander Stadium.
 
Ridings fired 150 pitches and struck out a career-high 12 to improve to 4-3 on the season.  Alvernia senior Aaron Benusis (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern) took the loss giving up five runs in two innings.
 
The Falcons opened the scoring with an unearned run in the first.  Alvernia shortstop Richie Ricciardi (Manalapan, N.J./Manalapan) couldn't field a grounder cleanly on the first batter of the game and Joseph Saufley ripped a double to left-center to drive in the first run of the game.
 
Benusis escaped further harm when Ricciardi snared a soft liner up the middle and doubled the runner off second.
 
Messiah pushed its early lead to 5-0 after the second scoring four runs on four hits.  Benusis and Derek Drake locked into a long at-bat with two out and a runner on second.  Drake fouled off five 3-2 pitches before swinging through a fastball to end the inning.
 
Alvernia cut into the lead in the bottom of the third inning.  Ridings walked two and gave up a single to load the bases then Zach Nadolny (Sparks, Md./Bel Air) delivered a 2-run single up the middle to cut the gap to 5-2.  Ridings limited the damage with a flyout and a strikeout to end the inning.
 
Messiah slowly added to its lead with single runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth to push ahead 8-2.
 
Six different batters had a hit apiece for the Crusaders.
 
Alvernia returns to play #4 Lebanon Valley College at 11:00 a.m. on Friday in the first elimination game of the championship.  Messiah will face top-seeded Widener in the winners bracket final at 3:00 p.m.

#3 Messiah 8, #2 Alvernia 2