ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — One out was all that stood between the Elizabethtown College baseball team and its first regular season victory over Alvernia in its last five tries. The Blue Jays couldn't manage that out before the Crusaders scored four runs to erase a 3-0 E-town lead and put themselves in the driver's seat for a sweep. Though E-town would fight back to tie game two in the bottom of the seventh, it was Alvernia that eventually came up with a 6-4 victory in 11 innings Saturday afternoon at Kevin Scott Boyd Stadium. The visitors also took game one, 10-3, to snare a pair of Commonwealth Conference wins.

Game two starter Jake Hoffstein gave head coach Cliff Smith a great outing in only his second start this season against a league opponent. Hoffstein held the potent Alvernia bats to just two hits over 6.2 innings and struck out two. Unfortunately for Hoffstein and the Jays (17-18, 7-8 CC) things came unraveled in the top of the seventh.

Three of Hoffstein's six free passes were issued in the inning, allowing the Crusaders (24-9-1, 13-2 CC) to load the bases. Todd Leister was called upon to try and lock down his sixth save of the season, but Chris Ray drew another walk to force in a run and Matt Patterson found some space in right field to drop a ball in that tied the game.

Richie Ricciardi also singled to right for consecutive AU hits. Ricciardi brought in Ray with the leading run, but the Blue Jays would not go quietly.

Dillon Tagle, the first batter in the bottom of the inning, laced a ball to right for a double. Tyler Weary ran for E-town's backstop and moved over to third on a perfect bunt single by senior Matt Reade. A diving stop by Ricciardi on Brian Verdelli's ball back through the box started a 6-4-3 double play, but it couldn't prevent Weary from sprinting home to tie the game at four.

Both teams, well into their benches by the time extra innings rolled around, and at the end of a long weekend, played on.

After three extra innings with nothing more decided, the Crusaders finally broke the stallmate in the 11th. Two straight singles and a sac bunt left AU runners on second and third with only one out. Eric Domitrovits, the 15th position player to appear in the game for Alvernia, lofted a ball to left field for a sacrifice fly that made it 5-4 Crusaders. Patterson then stepped in and was first pitch swinging. He singled through the left side to bring in Leon Stimpson, another reserve, for his third RBI of the game.

Even though the benches were pretty much thinned out, the relief pitchers had to soldier through with a lack of arms available after three games in two days. Kevin Becker-Menditto, Alvernia's leader in saves, threw five innings to pick up the win. Matt Ruth struck out four over 4.1 innings, but took the loss.

Earlier in the day, in game one, E-town claimed its first lead of the weekend series with a two-run first inning, but the Crusaders were able to answer with a nine-run second and went on to win game one, 10-3.

Kyle Gable was hit by a 2-0 offering from Alvernia ace Aaron Benusis (7-1) in the top of the first and quickly took off running. Gable stole his 17th base of the season before senior Tim Rosser walked for the first of three times in the game.

Both runners would advance a base on a Benusis balk and Steve Motika cashed in by hitting a sac fly to right for a 1-0 lead.

Later in the inning, Pat Mulligan knocked home Rosser, getting to first safely on an error by shortstop Richie Ricciardi.

Alvernia wouldn't be down for long, using eight hits and three errors to score nine of their 10 runs. Aaron Carman delivered a bases clearing triple as part of his 2-for-4, four RBI game.

Tagle finished 3-for-3 with an RBI for Elizabethtown. Tagle was the only hitter with more than one hit for the home team.

Benusis improved to 7-1, but only threw just over half of his 78 pitches for strikes. The Crusader hurler walked four and struck out three in five innings. All three runs he allowed were earned after entering the game with a 1.74 ERA.

Rob Cressman (4-3) suffered the defeat in six innings of work. Cressman allowed only one walk and rang up three strikeouts. He only gave up one hit after the tough second inning, in which six of the nine runs scored by AU were unearned.

E-town returns to the diamond Monday against Dickinson at 4 p.m. The team's final Commonwealth Conference series of the regular season comes next weekend against Messiah. Much like last year's close to the season against Lebanon Valley, a conference playoff spot lies totally in the Blue Jays' hands. The Jays are tied for the fourth and final spot with Widener, a team E-town swept earlier this spring. Messiah is third, a game up on the Jays at 8-7.