Baseball Gives Up Early Lead in 5-3 Loss to Stevenson

(box score)

Senior Nicholas Moeltner (Orefield, PA) pitched great by giving up no earned runs over nine innings, but Widener could not provide enough offense in a 5-3 Commonwealth Conference home loss to Stevenson.

Moeltner (2-4) tossed as well as he possibly could by giving up only six hits and one walk with three strikeouts and retiring the final 11 batters, but five unearned runs did him in for a tough loss.

Widener (10-13, 5-5 CC) scored twice in the last of the first inning for a 2-0 lead on consecutive RBI groundouts from freshman Alec O'Dell (Edgewood, MD) and sophomore Marc Noyalis (Dallas, PA). Stevenson drew equal in the third as Josh Morris lifted a sacrifice fly to center and Scott Merkel laced a run-scoring single to right.

The Mustangs (17-9, 6-4) almost did not score in the fifth, but Matt Bratter legged out a potential inning-ending double play at first base that plated Morris for a 3-2 lead. That proved huge as Troy Miller and Ben Hallam followed with consecutive RBI doubles for a 5-2 margin.

The Pride got one back in the eighth when senior Matt Hone (Newtown, PA) reached on a fielder's choice allowing Noyalis to reach home for a 5-3 deficit.

Stevenson in the last of the ninth appeared to have things in the bag when O'Dell hit a two-out grounder to third, but Miller's throw was off line and the game continued. The matters continued to get interesting when Noyalis singled to extend his career-best hitting streak to 14 games and junior Michael Riverso (Philadelphia, PA) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Dennis Hocker (Coral Springs, FL) then stepped to the plate and hit a shot to left that reached the warning track, but Heath Johnson made the catch to end it.

Hocker and senior Brendan O'Brien (Coatesville, PA) each had two hits for the Pride.

Alex Romanowski (3-2) got the victory, striking out seven and yielding three runs – two earned – and seven hits over 8 2/3 innings. Trevor Fitzsimmons faced the last three batters to notch his second save of the year and Merkel ended with two hits.

These teams will play a doubleheader Saturday in Owings Mills, MD, starting at noon.

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