Box Score

READING, Pa. - It was a battle of cross town rivals Thursday afternoon as the Lions looking to end a recent skid traveled up the road to take on Alvernia University in another huge conference match-up. Unfortunately it was the host Crusaders who pulled out the victory defeating Albright by the final score of 3-1 at Angelica Park.

Anyone who made it out Thursday's contest saw a true pitchers dual as two of the top pitchers in the Commonwealth Conference went head-to-head. In one corner you had Alvernia's ace Shane Zellers who entered the contest with a perfect 5-0 record. While in Albright's corner you had Casey Lawrence, the programs all-time strikeout leader.

The two pitchers gave two amazing performances as they battled through the nine inning contest. Zellers who picked up the win to remain undefeated on the season, struck out 12 Lion hitters, while only giving up three hits on the afternoon.

For Lawrence his afternoon consisted of 10 strikeouts, and only three runs on seven hits. Only two of the Crusaders three runs were earned Thursday afternoon.

At the plate Steve Bealer led his team with a 2-for-4 showing, which included one RBI and one run scored. Tim Ahlquist went 1-for-3 on the afternoon, and was also tallied one RBI and a run scored.

Of the Lions three hits, Jon Raymond crushed a double to right field in the second, which scored Jojo Fischer to make it 1-0 in favor of the Lions. Also recording hits in the conference match-up was Tommy Canuso and Fischer.

After taking the 1-0 lead in the second, the Lawrence would hold the Crusaders scoreless through the next five innings. Alvernia evened the score at 1-1 in the bottom half of the seventh, then took a two-run lead in the eighth on an RBI double by Ahlquist and an RBI single by Steve Bealer.

Baseball returns to action on Monday when they host their cross town rivals at Kelchner Field. The first pitch of Monday's conference doubleheader is scheduled for noon.