READING, Pa – The Arcadia University baseball team split a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader at Alvernia today, losing game one 7-1 and winning game two 7-5.   
 
In game one, Alvernia came out early and never looked back, scoring six of their seven runs in the first two innings of play. In the sixth inning with runners in scoring position, junior Michael Nessel hit a RBI single to bring in the only run for the Knights in the top of the sixth.
 
The second game was a lot different for Arcadia, which got the bats going early in the first inning as senior Justin Simpson scored off of a sophomore Jordan Draude single to left field. In the top of the fourth inning the Knights broke open the game by scoring three runs, two off of a Nessel double to left field, bringing in Draude and sophomore Justin Chasmar, before scoring himself on an error to cap off the inning and give the Knights a 4-1 lead. The lead grew to 5-1 in the fifth as senior Andonis Yiantsos advanced to third on junior Nick Todero's single to center and then scored on an error.
 
The Crusaders came back to tie the game at 5-5 by the end of the sixth after James Bertolotti drove in two runs whit his double to left in the fifth before Nick Liaci scored on a sac fly in the sixth to tie the game.  
 
The Knights would take over once again in the top of the seventh with a pair of runs for the 7-5 final. Sophomore Michael Ferrence stepped to the plate with runners in scoring position and singled to left field to bring in Draude and Chasmar with the winning runs. Nessel came in to pitch in the bottom half of the frame and slammed the door on Alvernia to pick up the save after going 1 for 4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored in the contest.
 
With the loss today, Arcadia just misses the Commonwealth Conference tournament, losing in a tie-break with Widener, and will await the ECAC selection process to see if it will qualify for the postseason.
 
The Knights head to Keystone College tomorrow for a non-conference game starting at 11:30 a.m.