YORK, Pa. – The Widener University baseball team stormed back, scoring 11 times in the final four innings, downing the top-seeded Hood Blazers in the opening game of the 2019 MAC Commonwealth Baseball Championship at PeoplesBank Park on Thursday afternoon.
BY THE NUMBERS
- The Blue and Gold banged out 15 hits in the contest including three each from Nick D'Alessandro and Greg Elfreth.
- Matt Samson, Tommy Scharnikow, and Brandon Reis each posted muiti-hit games. With a single in the third inning, Samson extended his hitting streak to 22 games.
- Reis and Stephen DeBellis each drove in three runs.
- Kade Jones surrendered three runs in the first, but recovered to hold the Blazers scoreless the rest of the way, authoring 7.1 innings, striking out five.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Trailing 3-0 into the sixth, the Blue and Gold fought back. McParland and D'Alessandro singled to lead off the inning in front of Stephen DeBellis who doubled high off the wall in left, plating both runners, cutting the lead to 3-2.
- With DeBellis on third and Scharnikow on second after being hit by a pitch and advancing on defensive indifference, Reis came up and singled through the right side, scoring the pair to give Widener a 4-3 edge. Taylor followed with a bunt single before Samson lifted a single to left, enabling Reis to cross the plate with an insurance run.
- The Pride continued the offensive attack in the seventh DeBellis lifted a sac fly to score D'Alessandro who doubled to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
- In the eighth, Taylor walked and stole second. Samson followed being hit by a pitch. On a double steal attempt, the throw to third went into leftfield, plating Taylor. A sac fly by McParland and a double from D'Alessandro brought in two more runs to make it 8-3
- Widener capped the scoring in the ninth, with a trio of runs including RBI single from Reis.
- After Widener threatened in the top of the inning, Hood scored three runs in the bottom of the first. From there, Jones did not allow a run and scatted five hits in the next 6.1 innings.
- Hood challenged in the eighth, putting two runners on with one out, but James Dougherty came on and got a double play to end the inning. He then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close the contest.
UP NEXT
Widener plays the winner between #2 Alvernia and #3 Arcadia on Friday morning at 11:00 a.m.