CHESTER, Pa. – The Widener University baseball team posted offensive numbers the likes of which hadn't been reached in years as the Pride topped the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen 23-6 in a MAC Commonwealth game on Friday afternoon.
 
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

• The 23 runs Widener scored were its most since crossing the plate 26 times against Arcadia on April 13, 2009.
• The Pride also banged out 23 hits in the game, the most since connecting for 23 on April 1, 2010, also against Arcadia.
• Daren Wood and Tommy McParland each had five hits in the game. No Widener player had accomplished that feat since Paul Shepherd went 5-for-5 at Gallaudet on February 22, 2014.
• Wood's six RBI are the most in a regular season game since Nick Enos posted seven against Messiah on April 3, 2017. Stephen DeBellis had nine in a postseason game last year.
• McParland scored each time reached base. The last player for the Blue and Gold to score five runs in a game was Dan Sierack on March 3, 2012 against Muhlenberg.

 
BY THE NUMBERS

• In addition to Wood and McParland each recording five hits, five Widener players had two hits each. Matt Samson, Brandon Reis, and Brennan Taylor each got their knocks as members of the starting lineup. Andrew Ciliberto and Bryce Fremgen both collected two hits off the bench.
• The hits for Samson extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
• Michael Oravic delivered his first career hit in the game, a two-run single.
• Nick D'Alessandro reached base four times, all via base on balls, scoring four times as well.
• Not to be lost in the offense was the starting pitching performance of Kade Jones who allowed just two earned runs on three hits, striking out six in six innings.
• Pitching the final three frames of the game, Joey Norton notched his first career save.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Trailing 1-0 in the first, Widener put runners on first and second on a single and a hit batsman. Wood grounded a ball to third and beat the throw to the bag, but the ball bounced by the first baseman, rolling up the rightfield line, allowing McParland and Stephen DeBellis to score, putting the Pride up 2-1.
• After the Dutchmen homered in the second to go back up 3-2, the Blue and Gold battled back again as Ryan Bennett singled, moves to third on a hit by Taylor and scored on a sac fly by Matt Samson.
• Wood was responsible for the scoring in the third, cracking his first homer of the season over the leftfield wall, pushing WU on top 4-3.
• The Widener bats exploded in the bottom of the fifth, loading the bases on singles by Samson and McParland and a walk to D'Alessandro. Two batters later, Wood delivered again, smacking a two-run single to make it 6-3. After Brandon Reis was hit by a pitch to re-load the bases, a passed ball and a wild pitch scored two more runs, Greg Elfreth singled home the final run of the frame, bringing in Reis, extending the advantage to 9-3.
• WU tacked on some insurance in the sixth as Samson singled and stole second before being singled home by McParland. Three more runs came across in the frame, pushing WU up 13-3. After LVC posted two in the top of the seventh, Widener added four in the bottom of the inning.
• The offense was just warming up as four more runs scored in the seventh, highlighted by RBI singles from Wood, McParland, and Fremgen.
• Widener posted its last runs of the game in the eighth including Oravic's single and a two-run double by Fremgen.

 
UP NEXT
The teams are back in action tomorrow, finishing the series with a doubleheader at McGill Field in Annville, Pa.