Box Score
READING, Pa. – With a combined 18 hits and seven shutout innings from Chuck Nicholas #11/13 Alvernia University defeated baseball by the final score of 16-5 Friday afternoon on Kelchner Field. Friday's contest marked the final home game for the Lions, who before the start of the game recognized their 10 senior members.
Picking-up four of the Lions five runs was junior right fielder
Jon Raymond, who absolutely crushed a high fastball over the left field wall for his first collegiate grand slam. The home run was the fourth of the year for Raymond, and marked the second time this season that a Lion hitter has cleared the bases with one swing of the bat. Raymond went 2-for-3 on the afternoon.
Albright's final run of the day, which was scored by senior
Frank Nastasi came from fellow senior
Justin Danser on an RBI single to right field. Danser put on quite the performance in his final game on Kelchner Field as he went 3-for-5 with the lone RBI and one run scored. Danser's three-hit afternoon improved his career best average to .381, which also ranks amongst the top-5 in the conference.
Danser now sits with 45 hits on the year and also has 19 RBI and 25 runs scored in 118 at-bats. Also recording hits in Friday's game was
Pat Brady,
Tom Canuso,
Rob Mancinelli, and
Jojo Fischer. Fischer came close to picking-up two more hits, but line drives were picked off by the Crusaders defense.
On the hill
Matt Rehrig was handed the loss, his fifth of the year (2-5), after going 5 1/3 in which he allowed 12 runs on 11 hits. Rehrig also had four strikeouts, and walked three Crusaders. Seniors
Kevin Thomas and
Michael Grantham combined to close out the final 3 2/3 innings.
Alvernia was led by Brian Witkowski, Chris Ray, and Reid Martin who each recorded three hits. The trio also combined for four RBI and eight runs scored respectively. Nicholas tallied 11 strikeouts in his seven shutout innings. He also allowed just one walk and five hits.
The Crusaders wasted little time getting on the scoreboard scoring a pair of runs in the opening frame. They then tacked on five more in the third to make 7-0. After a scoreless fourth, Alvernia put-up eight more runs through the next three innings. Their final run of the game came in the ninth.
Baseball will close out their 2011 season tomorrow afternoon at Alvernia as they face Crusaders in a conference doubleheader. Start time is set for noon.
