Hofferman, Knights Remain in the Post Season Hunt

Box Score
PHILADELPHIA, PA (April 27, 2012) - On senior day, Arcadia University Baseball positioned themselves for a chance at a post-season berth by defeating visiting Albright College 6-2 in today's Commonwealth Conference series opener at Erny Field. Jordan Hofferman '13, one of the league's top five pitchers, fashioned his 6th win of the year by throwing the complete game, ending it on one of his four strikeouts of the game.

The Knights jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after three innings and never looked back, and got two RBI each from Justin Simpson '14 and seniors Mike McElhatton and Mark Bowman to lead the offensive charge.

Arcadia completes the must-win series with two games tomorrow at Albright and hopes to receive some help from their Commonwealth counterparts to claim one of the two remaining spots for next weekend's league championships.

Help in the form of reaching the eight league-win mark themselves by sweeping the weekend series and holding both Elizabethtown (playing Messiah in their final series) and Widener (playing league-leader Alvernia) to 7 total wins each which can happen if both Messiah and Alvernia sweep their respective series.

It was evident that the Knights had all of this in mind at the onset of today's game one as they went right to battle against Albright starter Kevin O'Neil. And the team's seniors were right there leading the charge. A lead-off leftside single from Kyle Jackson '12 was followed by a single to right field from Bowman which moved Jackson around second and on into a perfect head first slide into third. Justin Simpson '14 brought Jackson and Bowman home on a left field rip then scored on a deep sac fly from McElhatton.

Hofferman was solid throughout but especially in the early going as he allowed Albright just 2 hits in the first two frames before completely closing the door on the Lions' offensive hopes in innings three and four. By that time, the Knights had tacked on two more runs in the third. McElhatton delivered a single through the left side and Pat Kwiatkowski '12 one to right field giving Arcadia a 5-0 lead.

Albright was able to get on the board in the sixth inning, scoring two runs on two hits and an error, but really couldn't catch a break and would only score those two runs in the nine inning set. The game raced along and each inning when the Lions would find a pitch by Hofferman within reach, Arcadia's outfield chased down everything, from shallow to deep.

The home team would get one of those Lion runs back in the seventh on a Smith RBI single up the middle that came off two Albright errors. That run made it 6-2 Arcadia.

The seventh, eighth and ninth for Albright started as quickly as it ended, with Hofferman yielding just one more hit in that time and the Knights walked off 6-2 victors.

Bowman, McElhatton, and Jackson, along with Marc Gottfried '12, Adam Planamento '12, Sean Morris '12 and Steve Romond '12 were honored during today's pre-game Senior Day ceremonies. Albright will do the same prior to tomorrow's first-pitch.

Tomorrow's must-win doubleheader for the Knights will start at 12 Noon at Albright's Kelchner Field.

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