Alvernia Crusaders Athletics

The following weekend, the Crusaders hoped to find some warmer weather in Florida when they traveled to the Coast for a week for their annual Spring Training. The team played a total of 10 games in Florida, and finished with an impressive record of 8-2. The first doubleheader sweep of the week came against Massachusetts Maritime, recording two shutouts with scores of 9-0 and 7-0. The following day, the Crusaders swept Lebanon Valley College 11-7 and 17-10. Elizabethtown College was next, and the Crusaders posted two close wins against Etown 1-0 and 10-9. After a day off, the Crusaders suffered their first two losses of the week to Susquehanna University in a 0-3 and 2-7 doubleheader sweep. The final two games of the week were single games, and the Crusaders won both; first they beat Kenyon College 16-8, followed by a win over Northwestern College 22-2. 

After heading back to PA with an 8-2 record from Florida, the Crusaders had a few non-conference before they opened their season in the newly-joined Freedom Conference. The first game after returning home, the Crusaders lost a road-game to Rowan University, but followed that up with four straight wins against Messiah College, a twin bill sweep of New Jersey City University, and their third win of the year over Lebanon-Valley. At this point, Alvernia made its first and only appearance of the season in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) poll, ranked 28^th of 30 in the NCAA Division III Baseball Poll.

At the end of March, the baseball team played their conference-opening game at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA, which resulted in a 2-6 loss for the Crusaders. In the home-opener, which was their first game at the new field at Angelica Park, the Crusaders fell to Marywood University 3-4. When they faced King’s for the second time of the season, they won 8-3. AU then suffered three straight losses in a doubleheader sweep by Manhattanville and a 5-6 loss to cross-town rival Albright College.  

When April came, so did the rain. This season was one of many rain-outs followed by many rescheduling. The Crusaders swept Delaware Valley, but then split with Misericordia. The Crusaders were swept by Elizabethtown after beating them twice in Florida. With all conference games left, the Crusaders needed to pick up a few more wins in order to clinch a playoff spot. AU split with DeSales, swept Eastern, and then split with Wilkes University. With the win against Wilkes, Alvernia still had playoff hopes, but needed to win both games against a very tough FDU-Florham. 

As baseball won two very close games against FDU, 9-8 and 7-6, they clinched the #3 Playoff spot. 

And the rain continued into May. The Freedom Conference were scheduled to be played the first weekend in May at Boyertown High School, a place the Crusaders were very familiar with since it is the same place that the PAC (their former conference) held their championship tournament. Games were scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but due to heavy rains were only able to be played on Saturday. Alvernia defeated #2 Wilkes in their first game, and then #5 FDU in their next game of the day. After Saturday, Wilkes made an early exit from the tournament, and the remainder of the games would have to be played throughout the following week. #5 FDU traveled to #1 Manhattanville on May 8, and Manhattanville won 19-14. Alvernia, at this point the only team who was 2-0, hosted first-seeded Manhattanville for the Freedom Conference Championship on May 9.

In a nerve-wracking 4-3 win over Manhattanville, the Alvernia University Crusaders captured the Freedom Conference title in their debut season, making it the ninth conference title in school history. The win made it so that the if-necessary game did not need to be played, and the Crusaders were 3-0 in the conference tournament.

With the capturing of the conference title, AU earned their sixth ever bid into the NCAA regional tournament. The Crusaders were ranked #7 of 8 teams, and took on #2 Keystone College (ranked #9 nationally by d3baseball.com). Keystone won the CSAC (formerly PAC) championship. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament took place in Lakewood, NJ.

Alvernia unfortunately suffered a tough loss to a very good Keystone College, 1-2.  The Crusaders then entered the loser’s bracket and faced #3 Montclair State the next day, who was previously defeated by #6 Elizabethtown College. The bats came alive against Montclair, and the Crusaders crushed the Red Hawks 10-1. The following day, the Crusaders were eliminated from the tournament with an 8-2 loss to #5 TCNJ. Kean University would eventually go on to win the tournament and become the Mid-Atlantic Regional Champions.

Seven starters for the Crusaders would bat above .300 this year; the offense was led by juniors Steve DeBarberie and Steve Bealer – both batted .370. Bealer also led the team in steals, being successful in 14 of 15 attempts. Sophomore Chris Stoudt led the team with seven homeruns, and nine other teammates hit at least one homerun this season.  

The pitching staff proved to remain strong throughout the season, led by starters Shane Zellers, Chris Stoudt and Chuck Nicholas. Stoudt and Zellers both earned Pitcher of the Week honors for the Freedom Conference this season, and Nicholas was named National Pitcher of the Week in early May and also earned a spot on the Regional All-Tournament Team. Ed Thompson led the pitching staff with a team-low 0.73 ERA. The Crusaders out-hit opponents .310 to .248, and out-pitched opponents with ERA’s of 3.34 to 6.73.

The Crusaders graduate just one senior this year, Eric Focht. After their first season in the Freedom Conference and already becoming conference champs, the Crusaders will again move conferences to join the Commonwealth Conference. Teams in the Commonwealth include: Albright College, Arcadia University, Elizabethtown College, Lebanon Valley College, Messiah College and Widener University.