Baseball Sweeps Twin-Bill at Lebanon Valley

(Game 1) / (Game 2)

Widener notched two big Commonwealth Conference victories at Lebanon Valley, rolling to an 8-2 triumph in the opener before rallying for a 4-2, eight-inning win in the nightcap in Annville, PA.

Widener (8-8, 4-2 CC) in game one plated three runs in the second inning for a 3-0 lead, marking the 10th time already this season it scored first. Kyle Summers (Mohnton, PA) an RBI infield single, fellow junior Sam Christie (Upper Darby, PA) lifted a sacrifice fly and senior Brendan O'Brien (Coatesville, PA) lined a run-scoring single.

The lead grew to 6-0 in the fourth. Christie ripped an RBI single, scored on an error by left fielder Jimmie Miller and sophomore Marc Noyalis (Dallas, PA) lined a run-scoring single.

Senior Dennis Hocker (Coral Springs, FL) scored on a fielding error in the fifth and Christie got his third RBI with a groundout in the seventh for an 8-0 margin.

Belford, NJ senior Brandon McCloskey (2-0) pitched great for the Pride, allowing two runs – one earned – and four hits over seven innings with four strikeouts. Hocker and Noyalis had two hits apiece.

Corey Cinicola gave up seven runs – two earned – and eight hits over five innings for the Dutchmen.

LVC (5-11, 2-4) in game two scored twice in the last of the fourth inning for a 2-0 lead. John Hildebrand had an RBI single to center and Andrew Germann added a run-scoring single.

Widener got one back in the sixth when senior Matt Hone (Newtown, PA) got an infield single and tied it in the seventh when sophomore Matt Scherer (Havertown, PA) launched a leadoff homer to left for his first career long ball.

No one was going to stop the Pride's momentum in the eighth as they scored twice for the win. Noyalis reached on a one-out single, took second on a wild pitch, reached third on Hone's infield single and crossed home on another wild pitch. Scherer added an insurance run with a single through the left side that plated Hone to secure a three-game regular-season sweep.

Noyalis (1-1) took over in the fifth and got the victory, striking out six and yielding just one hit over 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Scherer closed with three hits and Hone added two.

"Every conference game is critical," Widener head coach Mike LaRosa said. "The fact that we were able to bounce back today and sweep was huge. Especially the way we won game two, in come-from-behind fashion, shows the strong character and high level of mental toughess our team has."

Mike Specht took the loss by giving up two runs and three hits over one frame. Germann, Derek Brousseau and Phil Dohner had two hits apiece.

Widener on Tuesday visits Swarthmore for a 3:30 pm start.

Print Friendly Version