Box Score

La Plume, PA - Cairn University had the #15 Keystone Giants on the rope mid-way through the final game of their season series when the Giants offense exploded for 10 runs in the eighth inning.

Jeremy McAlack opened the scoring up for the Highlanders in the top of the first with his team-leading 27th run, off of an Austin Arseneau sacrifice fly, giving Cairn an early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Arseneau once again found himself at the plate with runners in scoring position, this time with the bases loaded, and hit another sacrifice fly, pushing Cairn's lead to 2-0 with Chad Hollinger's run.

Through four innings, Dean Diernbach and the Highlander defense only allowed four Keystone hits. But that changed in the fifth and sixth innings.

The Giants tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning before surging ahead 6-2 with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Cairn's response was swift, as the Highlanders tacked on four runs of their own in the top of the seventh to knot the score at 6-6. With Hollinger and McAlack in scoring position, Caleb Lang blasted a two-run single to center field. Arseneau knocked in his third run of the game and 16th of the season, scoring Lang, with his double to left center. He would score himself on Kenneth Searle's single to center field. It was Searle's 22nd RBI of the year.

The score remained unchange until the bottom of the eighth when Keystone nearly batted through the line-up twice. In the process, the nationally-ranked powerhouse poured on ten runs, opening up a 16-6 advantage.

Lang would score in the ninth on a passed ball but the Highlanders couldn't muster a strong enough rally to overcome the previous inning, falling 16-7.

Cairn dips to 6-27 and 1-14 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference.

On Thursday, the Highlanders will meet Valley Forge Christian College in the NCCAA East Region Semi-Final in Langhorne, PA. Cairn swept the Patriots earlier in the season with wins of 15-4 and 14-1.