CHESTER, Pa. (March 26, 2016) – Anchored by a pair of strong pitching performances from sophomore Josh Lafferty (Pottstown, Pa.) and senior Joe Santone (Blackwood, N.J.), the Widener University baseball team earned a pair of shutout victories against Arcadia in a Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. The Pride blanked the Knights by a 3-0 score in the opener before taking the nightcap by a 2-0 decision to vault themselves into first place in the league standings.
 
Widener got on the board quickly in the opener, as junior Michael Elfreth (Washington Township, N.J.) took the first pitch through the right side for a single and classmate Greg McDonough (Ambler, Pa.) homered to left on the second pitch of the game to put the hosts up by a 2-0 score in the blink of an eye. Junior Justin Healey (Ocean City, N.J.), who followed with a single to reach base, then stole home for the Pride's third run while classmate Bob Barnett (Glenolden, Pa.) was being picked off between first and second and eventually tagged out by Arcadia shortstop Justin Chasmer.
 
Lafferty, meanwhile, followed up with another masterful performance on the mound and most notably managed to get out of a major jam in the fourth with the help of his defense. After Arcadia loaded the bases with nobody out, Lafferty induced a lineout to left which was shallow enough to keep all of the runners on the pond. Elfreth then completed an unassisted double play at the hot spot by catching a rocket that came off the bat of Nick Ponente and then stepping on the bag to get Jordan Draude out at third, keeping the visitors off the board and helping the Pride hang on for the win.
 
By extending his shutout streak to 16 straight innings, Lafferty earned the complete-game victory for Widener and improved his record to 4-1 this season. He yielded six hits, issued two walks and recorded one strikeout. Jason Goldberg of Arcadia took the loss and fell to 1-2 on the year after surrendering eight hits and three runs, which were all earned, over six frames. He struck out two, hit three batters and also issued two additional free passes to first base.
 
In the nightcap, Widener broke a scoreless tie by plating its first run in the bottom of the third. Freshman Nick D'Alessandro (Williamstown, N.J.) was hit by a pitch with one out, advanced to third on a ball that was sliced down the line in right by Elfreth and then came home on an RBI single to left by McDonough.
 
Widener took advantage of a bad defensive decision in the infield to double its lead in the bottom of the fifth. With one out and runners on first and second, McDonough hit a ball to short that was fielded cleanly and thrown over to second to get Elfreth in time. But rather than holding on to the ball and having Knights pitcher Joel Bartoni face Healey with runners at first and third, second baseman George Pagan elected to take the high risk of trying to gun down the speedy McDonough at first base. The throw by Pagan was off target, which allowed D'Alessandro to score an unearned run on the error.
 
Arcadia (11-8-1, MAC Commonwealth 4-2), however, did not go down without a fight and nearly put together a big inning in the top of the seventh. With Steven Zellers reaching first base on a single and only one out, Drew Coisson hit a routine popup that was initially dropped by freshman shortstop Stephen DeBellis (Marlton, N.J.). But the Widener infielder avoided any further trouble by quickly recovering and finding junior Nicholas Enos (Williamstown, N.J.) to get the force out of Zellers at second. D'Alessandro then charged in to make a basket catch off a ball hit by Bryan Gillen to left field that ended the game.
 
Santone earned his first career shutout victory on the mound for Widener and improved his ledger to a perfect 2-0 this spring. He gave up six hits, registered four strikeouts and issued only one walk. Bartoni suffered the tough loss for Arcadia despite allowing only two runs, including one which was earned, and just five hits over six frames.
 
Widener (11-6, MAC Commonwealth 5-1), which has now won six of its last seven games, next travels to face the College of New Jersey for a non-conference contest on Tuesday, March 29 at 3:30 p.m.