YORK, Pa. – The Widener University baseball team built a big lead and then had to wait through an overnight rain delay before downing the Arcadia Knights 11-5 to advance in the MAC Commonwealth Championship on Saturday.
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Combined between the two days, Joey Zettlemoyer pitched a career-best six innings, allowing five hits and one run, striking out two.
• Brennan Taylor and Greg Elfreth each had three hits. Taylor drove in three as well.
• Ryan Bennett and Daren Wood each had multi-hit games.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Pride opened the scoring in the first inning as Tommy McParland reached on an error and moved to second on a walk by Nick D'Alessandro. Two batters later, Daren Wood singled home McParland for a 1-0 lead.
• After the Knights tied the game in the bottom of the first, Widener exploded in the third. Walks by D'Alessandro and Wood, combined with a single by Greg Elfreth loaded the bases for Brandon Reis who lifted a sac fly to left, plating D'Alessandro, making it 2-1. Ryan Bennett followed with a bunt single before Brenna Taylor came up with an infield single to short. Attempting to get Taylor at first, the throw got by the first baseman, allowing Wood and Elfreth to score.
• Keeping the inning going, Matt Samson singled, plating Bennett and Taylor. McParland reached on an error in front of D'Alessandro who doubled, bringing in both runners to increase the edge to 8-1.
• In the bottom of the third, Joey Zettlemoyer was able to get the first out of the inning before rain halted proceedings to Saturday.
• No scoring happened in the restart until the sixth when a pair of errors allowed DeBellis to score.
• Arcadia made some noise in the eighth, scoring four times.
• The Blue and Gold added some insurance in the ninth as Wood and Elfreth singled to open the inning and moved to second and third on a balk. The runners remained on those stations following two strikeouts, bringing up Taylor. The Widener shortstop laced a ball that ticked off the glove of the Knights' first baseman, scoring both runners, upping the lead to 11-5.

 
UP NEXT
Widener now advances to the final round of the MAC Commonwealth Championship where it takes on Alvernia. The first game begins at 3:15 today. The Pride needs to win two games to claim the title, the Golden Wolves need one.