YORK, Pa. (Baseball) – The second-seeded Arcadia Knights defeated the top-seeded Alvernia Crusaders for a second time in the 2017 MAC Commonwealth Baseball Championship on Sunday to captured its first-ever MAC Commonwealth baseball title.
Arcadia went 3-0 in the conference tournament. The Knights opened the tournament with a 7-3 win over third-seeded Widener on Thursday night.
On back-to-back days, Arcadia defeated Alvernia by identical scores of 8-4, including in Sunday’s championship round.
The Knights got on the board first with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. But Alvernia, who was playing to force the ‘if necessary’ game, scored a pair of runs in the top of the fourth and fifth innings to take a 4-2 lead.
Arcadia responded immediately in the bottom of the fifth with three runs to retake the lead, 5-4.
The Knights would add three more runs over the next two innings to take the 8-4 lead.
Senior catcher Jordan Draude was named the MAC Commonwealth Championship MVP.
Draude went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored on Sunday. The senior finished the championship weekend batting 6-for-10 with five RBIs and four runs scored.