READING, Pa. (Apr. 7, 2017) – The Widener University baseball team had its impressive winning streak snapped at 11 games as it fell to nationally-ranked Alvernia by a close 6-3 score on Friday afternoon at Alvernia University. 

Alvernia, which is ranked 11th nationally by d3baseball.com, opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning with an early home run scored by Alex Salesky. Before the hosts tacked on another run in the bottom of the third frame, Widener got itself on the board with a homer from senior Bob Barnett (Glenolden, Pa.) to tie the score. 

With the Pride down by one in the top of the seventh frame, junior Kyle Lowery (Norristown, Pa.) singled to right field to advance junior Mike Garofolo (Pitman, N.J.) and tie the game up again with a score of 3-3. The Crusaders answered back with a run of its own in the seventh and never looked back by tacking on two more in the bottom of the eighth to close out the scoring. 

Junior Kyle McKelvy suffered the loss for the Pride. He pitched seven innings, surrendered ten hits, six runs, struck out one, and issued three walks. John Catchmark picked up the victory on the mound for Alvernia. He hurled eight innings, surrendered eight hits, three runs, struck out eight and issued one walk.

The Pride will return to action as they host their first Salute to Service game against Alvernia in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. on Saturday.