HOBOKEN, N.J. (March 21, 2021) – Ryan Shea produced a solid start on the hill and the combination of Alex Smith and Anthony Pron held on late to give the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team a 5-4 win over Arcadia University in the series finale after falling in game one 8-2.

Shea (2-0) picked up the win on the hill in the second contest after tossing 5.0 innings and allowing a single unearned run and scattering seven hits with four strikeouts. Pron, meanwhile, earned the save after throwing the final 1.1 innings and giving up just one hit and fanning two, including the final batter of the game.

"I'm proud of the way we played in the fourth game of the series," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "Perhaps at the end of the year we may look back and see that this win made a difference for us in some way, shape or form."

Offensively, the Ducks were led by first-year Christian Kreiser who finished the day 3 for 6 with a double, three RBI (including the game-winning RBI in game two) and a run scored. Ryan Wall was also solid as he combined to go 3 for 7 with an RBI and two runs scored.

In total, Stevens banged out 14 hits across the two hits after managing just six in Saturday's doubleheader.

The first contest of the day saw some tough luck for starting pitcher Chandler Brierley who looked like he was going to strand the bases loaded in the first after inducing a fly ball to center with two away. That was not the case, however, as the ball fell out of the glove of Chris Zickert and all three runs came around to score.

A passed ball on the very next batter added another run to make it 4-0 before Brielerly got a punch out to end things.

The score remained the same until the top half of the fourth when Nick Sekelick stepped to the plate and extended the lead to five with a solo homer over the right field wall.

In the bottom half of the fifth, the Ducks put their first runs of the series on the board after Wall led things off with a double, moved to third on a passed ball and raced home on an RBI double off the bat of Gannon Kenney-McGowan.

After the Knights answered with a run of their own in the top of the sixth and two more in the seventh, Kreiser stepped to the plate and unloaded a 2-2 pitch over the right field wall.

Nothing more was doing for Stevens, though as a pair of strikeouts ended the first game of the doubleheader with an 8-2 score.

Brierley, who allowed just one earned run over 5.0 innings of work, struck out nine more batters to bring his season strikeout total to 26 which ranks first in the MAC Freedom.

Game two started very differently than game one as it was Stevens who jumped ahead in the first thanks to a Johnny Albrecht two-run homer to right center.

After an RBI groundout cut the lead in half in the top of the third, the Ducks extended the edge to three with a pair of runs in the bottom half.

Nate Zuckerman led the inning off with a walk and moved around the base pads thanks to a Thomas Paulich single and an error on a ground ball to third.

One batter later, Wall delivered an RBI single into right and moved everyone up 90 feet.

After a foul out, Kreiser delivered in the big spot with a runner on third and less than two outs as he lifted a sac fly into center field to score Paulich.

The fifth and eventual game-winning run for the Ducks came in the bottom of the fifth with Kreiser at the plate once again.

The first-year proceeded to rip a line drive down the right field line that landed just fair, much to the dismay of the Arcadia coaching staff, to plate Gannon Kenney-McGowan and push the edge to 5-1.

The score remained the same until the top half of the eighth when the Knights threatened to take control of the game and the series in a big way.

Alex Smith, who came on in relief of Shea, got a pair of strikeouts with a runner of second base to give the Ducks two away in the frame. After a hit batter, Arcadia's Ryan Smolen doubled to left to bring home two and pinch hitter Connor Cheeseman singled into right to plate Smolen and make it 7-6.

With a runner on first and two away, the Knights aggressively tried to move a runner into scoring position with an attempted steal. Ben Tobio had other plans, though, as he hosed the runner at second base to end the inning with the lead intact.

Pron, who came out of the pen to end the eighth, then got the ball in the ninth and induced a groundout and a pair of three-pitch strikeouts to end things and become the first baseball student-athlete in the MAC Freedom with multiple saves this season.

"The trio of Shea, Smith and Pron all pitched very well in the game four win," Aldins said. "We also saw Tobio have an excellent game defensively throwing out a few would-be base stealers that made a huge difference in the end result."

The Ducks return to action Saturday with a four-game set against Wilkes University with the first two games taking place in Hoboken at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on StevensDucks.com.

"After a series like this, some rest is certainly needed for everyone," Aldins said. "And then on Tuesday we will get back to work in preparation for Wilkes this weekend."

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