Baseball Comes Home With 10-4 Win Over Gwynedd-Mercy

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Widener strung together 17 hits in today's contest with Gwynedd-Mercy and took home a 10-4 victory from Gywnedd Valley, PA.

Widener got off to a good start, getting up three runs by the second inning with three hits in the first and two in the second. Starting pitcher Peter Pulhac (Bordentown, NJ) only gave up one hit to Gwynedd-Mercy in that time. In the second inning the Griffins had two errors to help keep the Pride's rally going.

Although the Pride (11-15) had two hits in the third inning, no runs were scored until the bottom half of the inning when Gwynedd Mercy strung together two hits and took advantage of a wild pitch to help score before Pulhac caught a line drive and threw to first to get the double play to end the inning.

The Griffins (15-10) took a one run lead over Widener in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring three runs on four hits. Freshman Mike Marchitto led off the inning with a triple and scored easily on a single by Josh Martin. A stolen base put Martin in place to tag up to third base on a fly-out to right field, which allowed him to score easily on a single. Shawn Barton (Minersville, PA) was brought in to pitch for Widener and a passed ball by catcher Alex Barclay (Crofton, MD) allowed a third run to score.

Widener turned around to score two unearned runs in the fifth inning to take the lead for the final time, 5-4. Jake Tackett (Collingswood, NJ) reached first on a fielding error and advanced to second with a sacrifice bunt from left fielder Joseph Santone (Blackwood, NJ). Second baseman Kyle Summers (Mohnton, PA) singled to put runners on each corner base for the Pride, with the first run crossing when Tackett took advantage of a wild pitch. Matt Scherer (Havertown, PA), who came into the game to play shortstop, hit a single to score Summers.

The Pride's pitching staff only gave up one hit between the bottom of the fifth and the next four innings, with the offense tacking on five more runs between the eighth and ninth inning.

In the eighth inning, Michael Riverso (Philadelphia, PA) got things started with a single and was followed by back-to-back doubles by Dennis Hocker (Coral Springs, FL), into the game to catch, and Tackett to bring in two runs. In the top of the ninth inning, sophomore Matt Scherer (Havertown, PA) reached with a walk and scored on triple hit by Riverso. Riverso scored on a single, and Hocker also hit a triple to bring in a third run. Junior Glenn Stanners (Brookhaven, PA) picked up the save after striking out two and yielding just one hit over two innings.

Barton was credited with the win after pitcher 3 1/3 innings of relief and only giving up a walk in 11 batters faced. Beau Fleming was saddled with the loss after pitching the first five innings and giving up five runs -- one earned -- on nine hits with two strikeouts .

Everett hit two singles in two at-bats, with Scherer going 1-for-2 with a run scored and one RBI. Riverso went 2-for-3 with a walk, crossing the plate twice himself and bringing in two other runs. Tackett hit .500 on the day, getting three hits in six at-bats with Summers going 3-for-5.

"We had a lot of guys contribute to the victory today, which was great to see," Widener coach Mike LaRosa said. "Our bullpen, in particular, did an excellent job by giving up only one hit in relief. This was an important game to help give us some momentum going into a big conference series (vs. Albright) this weekend."

Widener will host Albright on Friday in the first game of a three game Commonwealth Conference series, beginning at 3:30 pm.

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