Reading, Pa. (May 1, 2019) - Alvernia University enters tomorrow's MAC Commonwealth Baseball Championship as the second seed, and will face third seeded Arcadia University in game two of the MAC Commonwealth Championship on Thursday, hosted at PeoplesBank Park in York, Pa.

The tournament gets underway at 3:00 PM on Thursday with top-seeded Hood taking on fourth-seeded Widener in the first game of the tournament.

2019 marks the 33rd straight year that Alvernia has made it to the postseason. The Golden Wolves were the number one seed the previous three seasons, and last won the MAC Commonwealth Championship in 2015.

The 2019 field is same set of teams who made the tournament in 2018, when Arcadia won it all.

#3 Arcadia vs. #2 Alvernia
The Golden Wolves went 25-13-2 in the regular season, including a 15-6 performance in MAC Commonwealth play. The Golden Wolves finished the regular season with the same MAC Commonwealth record as Hood College, but the Blazers earned the top seed with the series win over Alvernia. Alvernia closed out its regular season with a 2-1 series win over Arcadia this past weekend. Alvernia's offense is led by senior Nathan Sides, who is batting .485 on the season with 80 hits, 47 RBIs, and 56 runs scored. Sides also leads all of Division III in hits, and is third in the nation in batting average. Nicholas Marotta, Zack Landy, and Tim Carfery have anchored Alvernia's starting pitching rotation, with Marotta posting a 4.53 ERA and six wins. Landy has posted a 5-1 record with a 5.06 ERA, and Carfery has posted a 3.26 ERA over 30 and a third innings pitched.

Arcadia, the defending MAC Commonwealth Champions, went 24-15 overall and 14-7 in MAC Commonwealth play. The Knights only dropped two MAC Commonwealth series the entire season with a 2-1 series loss to Alvernia and a three game sweep by Hood. Offensively, the Knights are led by Phil Pierfy, and defending MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year Bryan Gillen. Pierfy is batting .431 on the year with 62 hits, 45 RBIs, and three home runs. Gillen is batting .419 with 62 hits and 24 RBIs. On the mound, Arcadia's pitching staff is led by Joel Bartoni, who has a 1.98 ERA in 59 innings pitched with an 8-1 record. Bartoni was on the mound when the Knights defeated the Golden Wolves earlier this season. He struck out six Golden Wolves and allowed six hits in five innings of work.

#4 Widener vs. #1 Hood
The top-seeded Blazers finished the regular season with an overall record 25-11-1, and were 15-6 in MAC Commonwealth play. The Blazers had won ten straight games before dropping their final two games of the year to Widener. Hood is led offensively by Jordan Patterson and Nathan Kessler. Patterson is batting .392 on the year with 38 hits over 97 at-bats and 19 RBIs, while Kessler is a .336 average with 41 hits and 18 RBIs. Nate Luscombe is leading the way on the mound for the Blazers. Luscombe has a 2.29 ERA with 51 strikeouts over 63 innings of work. He has a 5-1 record and has pitched three complete games for the Blazers. Jake Howell has been a solid closer for the Blazers with 19 strikeouts and four saves over 21 innings and nine appearances.

Widener made it into the tournament as the four seed after tying with Stevenson with a MAC Commonwealth record of 10-11. The Pride defeated the Mustangs with a 2-1 series win in the regular season to win the tiebreaker. Widener posted an overall record of 17-22-1 in the regular season. Daren Wood leads the Pride offense with a .421 batting average. Wood has 40 hits on the season with 27 RBIs. Stephen DeBellis is leading the Pride with 39 RBIs and eight home runs. Dylan Peiffer is Widener's top starting pitcher with a 4.00 ERA and 48 strikeouts over 63 innings of work. James Dougherty also leads the Pride with five wins, a 1.40 ERA, and 20 strikeouts over 25 and two thirds innings.

The winners of the first two games will meet at 11:00 AM on Friday morning. The losers of both games will move into the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament and will meet at 3:00 PM on Friday afternoon.

Spectators can get day passes for $6.00 (adults) or $3.00 (students). For complete MAC Commonwealth Championship information and the compete schedule, visit the MAC Commonwealth Championship central page.