YORK, Pa. (April 28, 2021) – Playing outside of the MAC Freedom for the first time in 2021, the Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team fell 16-2 on the road against York College of Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon in the final regular season contest of the season.

With the loss, Stevens closes its regular season with a 19-9 overall record and a 18-9 mark in conference play. By virtue of DeSales University's win over King's earlier in the day, the Ducks clinched the #3 seed in the MAC Freedom Tournament and will take on #6 FDU-Florham in a doubleheader in Hoboken on Saturday with the if-necessary game three occurring Sunday in Madison, N.J.

York, meanwhile, improved its impressive record this season to 21-5. The Spartans locked up the MAC Commonwealth regular season title earlier in the week and will be the #1 seed in the conference tournament starting this Saturday.

"Valuable experience to get a chance to play on a grass field today against a quality opponent in York," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "We did not achieve the team result we were looking for, but on the bright side we were able to get some important at-bats and game action for quite a bit of our roster. These live at-bats, innings on the mound and defensive work should come in handy heading into the weekend vs. FDU as we prepare for our quest for a MAC Freedom Championship title."

York got the first runs of the game the bottom of first as Austin Denli and Jack Berry hit back-to-back solo home runs to take an early 2-0 lead.

The Ducks were able to cut the lead in half in the top half of the second when Johnny Albrecht and Michael Reyes hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners for Ryan Wall. The junior from Levittown, N.Y. increased his team-high RBI total to 27 with a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-1.

The Spartans got the run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single to left which caused Stevens to turn to Eli Zuckerman with two on and two outs.

Zuckerman was able to induce Denli to hit a groundball to short that looked like it would end the inning but a play was unable to be made and loaded the bases.

Barry then stepped to the plate and broke the game open with a grand slam over the right field wall to push the lead to 7-1. York would go on to tack on three more in the inning, all of which were unearned, to swell the lead to nine.

After Denli's second homer of the contest in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fourth pushed the score to 13-1, the Ducks were able to get on the board again thanks to a RBI single up the middle by Ryan Finegan that brought home Christian Kreiser.

It was the second straight start with an RBI for Finegan who has now appeared in the starting lineup in back-to-back games for the first time since March 13 against Delaware Valley.

York added two more in the sixth and another in the seventh to push the lead to what would be the eventual final score of 16-2.

Offensively, Stevens got one hit apiece from Albrecht, Reyes, Wall and Finegan while Chandler Brierley was the most effective reliever for the Ducks as he struck out the side in his only inning of work on the mound.

The 2021 MAC Freedom Championship has been changed to a new format. The championship will proceed with quarterfinal, semifinal and championship rounds. Each round will be a three-game series with the higher- seeded team hosting a doubleheader on the first day and the lower-seeded team hosting the 'if necessary' game on the next day. However, the higher-seeded team will be the "home team" in all three contests. All three games of each series will be nine innings.

The quarterfinals start Saturday as the Ducks take on FDU-Florham starting at 12:00 p.m. As a reminder, a limited number of spectators are allowed at outdoor home varsity athletic competitions.

Each competing Stevens student-athlete and coach will be allowed no more than two guests per home contest for outdoor events only. If a student-athlete or coach does not have any guests, their allotment cannot be transferred to another member of the team or to any other individual. 

Unfortunately, at this time, Stevens cannot allow spectators from visiting institutions at any sporting events. Also, there will be no general admission, including walk-ups, to any home athletic event.

Live stats and video for Saturday's doubleheader will be available on StevensDucks.com.

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