La Plume, PA – Keystone College's baseball team advanced to the Colonial States Athletic Conference championship game by outslugging Gwynedd Mercy University 17-9 on Thursday afternoon at Christy Mathewson Field.  The Giants, who have now won 16 of their last 17 contests, improve to 26-12 on the season and will host the winner of Friday's elimination game between Gwynedd Mercy and Immaculata University on Saturday at noon with two chances to claim their sixth-consecutive CSAC crown and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Tournament. 
 
The second seeded Griffins (19-17-1) will host Immaculata, a 12-1 winner over Neumann University in Thursday's elimination game, on Friday afternoon in an elimination game with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship round at Keystone, the top seed in the tournament.  Entering Saturday's title game 2-0 in the postseason, the Giants need one win on Saturday to claim the conference championship while their opponent would need to defeat Keystone twice on Saturday to dethrone the defending champions. 
 
On Thursday, Gwynedd Mercy opened the scoring with two outs in their first at-bats as Dante Cassano scored from first on a double to the right field wall off the bat John Burns to claim the early 1-0 lead. 
 
Keystone countered with three runs in the bottom of the second inning as Lymbel Guerrero (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical) led off the inning with a single to left field before Gaston Rojas (Carmel, NY/Carmel) launched a two-run home run – his third of the season - deep over the fence in left before Rick McLaughlin (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) scored on a sacrifice fly from Domenick Montanaro (Egg Harbor Township, NJ/Egg Harbor Township).
 
The Griffins countered in the top of the third inning when Dante Cassano lined a two-run homer over the wall in left to tie the score at three-apiece, but the Giants went back in front, 4-3, in the home half of the frame when Kevin Luciano (Everett, MA/Cambridge Rindge and Latin School) hit a two-out single that scored Guerrero from second. 
 
Keystone pushed their lead to 5-3 in the fourth inning when Reyes scored on an RBI groundout by Ricky Riscica (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) before Darley scored the Giants' sixth run in the home sixth when Kevin Catherina (Ridgefield, NJ/St. Mary (Rutherford)) reached on a fielder's choice, stretching the host's advantage to 6-3.
 
Gwynedd Mercy batted around in the visitor's seventh and scored five runs on seven hits to take an 8-6 lead.  John Burns and Frank Saviski hitting back-to-back RBI singles.  Burns scored when Chris Hens reached on a fielder's choice before Greg Brooks and Rick Elfreth hit back-to-back RBI base knocks to give the Griffins the two-run advantage.
 
The Giants countered in the bottom of the frame by batting around and scoring five runs on three hits and three errors to claim an 11-8 advantage.  Darley delivered a two-run single through the right side to bring home Rojas and Luciano before McLaughlin scored as Montanaro reached on a fielding error by the Griffins.  The Giants made it a 10-8 game when Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) scored on another Gwynedd Mercy error as Catherina reached on a fielder's choice before extending their lead to three runs when Montanaro scored on an RBI groundout by Dan Denton (Newtown, PA/Council Rock North).     
 
The visitor's got a run back in the top of the eighth as Tom Bordi doubled to the gap in left-center to score Burns from second to cut their deficit to 11-9, but the Giants answered in the bottom of the frame with six runs.  Luciano scored as Darley reached on a fielder's choice to give Keystone a three-run lead before Denton drew a bases loaded walk to push the Giants' advantage to 13-9.  Guerrero then put an exclamation point on the game by launching a grand slam home run, his team-leading fourth round-tripper of the spring, to give Keystone a 17-9 cushion heading into the ninth inning. 
 
Montanaro, Guerrero, Luciano, McLaughlin, and Darley all had two hits for the Giants, with Guerrero collecting four RBIs and Darley driving in three runs.  Guerrero and Reyes scored three runs apiece for the Giants, who collected 13 hits on the day. 
 
Adam Sosnowski (Dickson City, PA/Mid-Valley) (3-2) picked up the win in relief of starter Darren Lauer (New Hope, PA/Council Rock North), who gave up seven runs in 6.1 innings of work while striking out two batters.  Sosnowski yielded two runs and fanned one batter in 1.2 innings on the hill while Robert Minaya (North Bergen, NJ/North Bergen) pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out the victory. 
 
Behind the plate, Darley threw out a pair of runners attempting to steal on Thursday, pushing his season-total to 12 including three runners caught stealing in the CSAC playoffs.
 
Brooks went 4-5 to leady Gwynedd Mercy, while John Burns went 3-4 in the loss.  Burns and Cassano had two RBIs to pace the Griffins offense, while totaled 17 hits on the day.
 
Gwynedd Mercy starter Matt Rakus lasted six innings before being chased after giving up six runs on eight hits while recording seven Ks.  Beau Fleming (0-3) was charged with the loss after surrendering five runs on three hits in 0.1 innings of work. Rich Young yielded five unearned runs in 1.1 innings on the hill while Sean Muscovitch was charged with one run on one hit before record the final out for the Griffins, who committed six errors on the day.
 
Saturday's championship game will begin at 12:00 p.m. at Keystone's Christy Mathewson Field.  If necessary, a winner-take-all game will be played 30 minutes after the conclusion of Saturday's first game.