Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box
CHESTER, Pa. - Lebanon Valley College split its regular-season finale Saturday, dropping game one 4-1 before beating Widener University 7-5 in the nightcap of a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader.
The Dutchmen (12-23, 1-11 CC) will head right back to Chester on Tuesday to face the Pride (24-12, 5-7 CC) in the Commonwealth Conference tournament play-in game at 3 p.m. Under this year's playoff format, the fourth- and fifth-seeded teams will meet for the chance to enter the four-team, double-elimination tournament to be held next weekend at Owls Field in West Lawn.
Nate Blough was hooked for the loss in game one, surrendering all four runs, while Nick Faria earned the win in the nightcap to improved to 3-3 as Jake Becker picked up his fifth save of the season.
LVC scored first in the opener with Joe Soupik's single driving in Brandon Thompson, but Widener took the lead in the second on Tom Mahoney's two-run single. Widener then took a 3-1 lead in the third with Zak Atiram's RBI double, and Tom Fien's single in the fifth scored Tom Connelly for a final insurance run.
Game two started the same way as John Mentzer grounded out to short but scored Thompson for an early 1-0 lead. Widener, however, scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, starting with Pat Santry's RBI double following Tom DeAngelis' triple. Connelly's sac fly scored Santry, and Colin McHale drove in two runs with a double.
After the shaky first, though, Faria shut down the Pride and LVC's bats supported him. Mentzer blasted a solo shot in the third to cut the Pride lead to 4-2, and the Dutchmen tied the game in the fourth when Thompson singled in Dennis Morgan and Joe Kopchick.
Lebanon Valley retook the lead in the fifth when Grant Wiest grounded out to short to score Soupik, and two more runs came across in the seventh with Ryan Bostdorf advancing home on an error and Mark Mehalko singling in Kopchick.
Widener made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh, putting a run through with Connelly's sac fly, but it was too little as Becker held on to save the game with two and a third innings of work.
