York, Pa. (May 1, 2015) - The Widener University Pride (21-17) defeated the Messiah College Falcons (17-20) 13-5 in a Commonwealth Conference baseball playoff game Friday afternoon at Santander Stadium in York behind four RBIs from Greg McDonough.
 
Widener opened the scoring in top of the sixth when it loaded the bases on a hit by pitch, an error, and a misplayed bunt.  Matthew Guarino ended the shut out by crushing a line drive up the middle that hit off the glove of Messiah starter Brandon Shirk and chased home Michael Rytelewski. 
 
Shirk then ran into control issues and walked Nicholas Enos and Michael Elfreth with the bases loaded staking Widener to a 3-0 lead and ending Shirk's day.
 
Messiah relief pitcher Tyler Mitcheltree was able to get an out of the inning on a force at home but Greg Mcdonough smashed a bases clearing double into left center, stretching the Widener lead to 6-0.
 
Messiah fought back in the bottom of the sixth when back to back doubles from Derek Drake and Jon Heisey off the 37 foot wall in left field cut the Widener lead to five.  Widener was able to get consecutive ground outs to end the threat.
 
Guarino picked up his second RBI of the game when he singled up the middle increasing the lead to 7-1.  Joseph Addvensky tacked on two more runs when he doubled down the left field line increasing the Widener lead to eight. 
 
Mcdonough tacked on his fourth RBI of the game when he launched a sacrifice fly right center to make it 10-1.
 
The Falcons refused to go down without a fight as Ben Sollenberger launched a moon shot over the left field wall leading off the top of the seventh making it 10-2.
 
The Pride finished their scoring when they tacked on three more runs in the top of the eighth coming off an Enos RBI single and a 2-run single from Elfreth.
 
Austin Mellinger and Heisey added RBIs in the bottom of the ninth to make it 13-5.
 
Widener starter Kyle McKelvy went 6.1 innings to get the win, allowing two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts. 
 
Shirk took the loss for Messiah allowing six runs over five innings.
 
Messiah finishes its season at 17-19.
 
With the win, Widener advances to the losers bracket final Friday at 7:00 p.m. against the loser of Alvernia University and Stevenson University.
 
#4 Widener 13, #2 Messiah 5