BOX SCORE
Boyertown, Pa. (May 3, 2008) – Second-seeded Gwynedd-Mercy College (20-18) racked up 17 base hits with four of them leaving the yard in a 15-8 victory over top-seeded Alvernia College (31-11) Saturday afternoon in the winners’ bracket final of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Baseball Championships at Bear Stadium.
Alvernia starter
Shane Zellers (Wiconisco, Pa./Williams Valley) retired the first two batters, but then walked two straight before GMC sophomore
Dan Strack (Langhorne, Pa./Holy Ghost) slapped a two-run double down the line in left.
The Alvernia bats jumped right to the defense of their starter knocking in five runs in the home half of the first inning for a 5-2 lead. Senior catcher
Dale Curry (Philadelphia, Pa./Father Judge) drove in two with single down the left field line and junior
James Geosits (Wyomissing, Pa./Wilson) drove a two-run homer to left center.
Steve DeBarberie (Drexel Hill, Pa./Monsignor Bonner) doubled and scored on a wild pitch as GMC starter
Ryan McNamara (Westmont, N.J./Haddon Twp.) only lasted a third of an inning.
Junior
Sean Middleton (Perkasie, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) came in and retired 10 straight as the Griffin offense slowly took over. GMC scored on a sacrifice fly in the second to trim the lead to 5-3, and plated three on
Mike Albert’s (Levittown, Pa./Pennsbury) second home run of the tournament in the third. That shot to the gap in left center signaled the end of the day for Zellers.
Gwynedd-Mercy scored a run in the fourth on a triple and a sacrifice fly to take a 7-5 lead and went without a run for the first time in the fifth as Middleton continued to roll. The junior righty gave up a two-out single in the fourth to end his streak of 10 straight retired, but promptly started another streak setting down nine in a row.
The Griffins blew it open with six runs in the sixth sending 11 batters to the plate. Strack highlighted the frame with a 3-run, opposite field home run, and
Mark Mattes (Doylestown, Pa./C.B. East) added a two-out, two-run single.
Alvernia started to make some noise in the eighth with a solo shot by Curry and a two-run homer from DeBarberie, but GMC shot down any thought of a comeback with a solo homer in each of the last two innings.
Alvernia will take on #3 Centenary College in an elimination game on Saturday evening. Gwynedd-Mercy will await the winner of that game in Sunday’s final.
#2 Gwynedd-Mercy 15, #1 Alvernia 8