READING, Pa. — Elizabethtown watched 19th-ranked Alvernia snatch away a pair of victories in its final at bats during a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays led 4-1 in the fifth inning of game one before the Crusaders scored in innings five, six and seven to take a 5-4 victory. Alvernia would trail heading to the seventh in game two, but two runs gave them the sweep by an exact 5-4 count in the nightcap.

The Blue Jays (11-12, 4-4) got two hits and an RBI from Steve Motika in game one.

Rob Cressman gave E-town his third strong outing in a row, but the Alvernia bats finally got to him in the fifth. Leon Simpson hit a solo shot with two outs in the frame. While the sophomore would get out of the inning, he would not survive the sixth. Tim Ahlquist tripled in a run and Tyler Russ hit a sac fly off reliever Todd Leister to tie the game at four.

Alvernia (20-3, 8-0) drew three consecutive walks against Leister to begin the seventh, putting the conference-leading Crusaders in business. E-town would get a force at the plate for out number one, but any hopes they had on escaping the inning were dashed with Reid Martin's sacrifice fly that plated Brian Witkowski to end it.

AU starter Andrew Kirk struck out 10 in his complete game win. Kirk allowed four hits and walked four. Cressman yielded two walks and struck out two in defeat.

Dillon Tagle would record E-town's only multi-hit game in the nightcap, but Alvernia struck with two in the bottom of the seventh to win that game in comeback fashion as well.

The Jays did all their damage in a four-run fourth inning. Motika and Tagle both singled before Matt Reade walked to load the bags. Pat Mulligan paid for his RBI when he was hit by a Mike Weinhold offering. Ian Smith and Kevin Berkheiser both picked up RBI singles in the inning and Kyle Gable's sac fly drove in E-town's final run of the inning.

It was Simpson again getting a rally started for the home side in the seventh. He walked and later scored on a double steal with Witkowski to tie the game at four. Eric Domitrovits would then walk against Jake Hoffstein with the bases loaded to bring across the winning run.

Motika, who picked up three hits in the two games combined, has now hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games for E-town.

The Blue Jays return to Boyd Stadium Tuesday for a non-conference game against Stevenson at 4 p.m.