The Misericordia University baseball team dropped into the loser's bracket of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional championships with a 3-1 loss to Alvernia, Friday night into Saturday morning.

MU, 30-15, will face the winner of Kean and Johns Hopkins, Saturday at 1:15 for the right to take on Alvernia in the championships game.

The Cougars fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first when Leon Stimpson tripled down the right field line past a diving Jeff Slanovec to lead off the game. He came home on Brian Witkowski's grounder to first base.

MU had three hits in the bottom of the inning, but left two runners stranded and had another caught stealing.

With MU closer Matt Karabin getting the start on the mound, Alvernia loaded the bases with just one out in the top of the fourth, but Karabin got a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat.

The Cougars manufactured a run in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score. Nate Newman was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. After advancing to third on Andres Gonzalez groundout, he scored on Jeff Slanovec's bunt single.

Alvernia got a runner to second in the top of the seventh, but Karabin struck out the last batter that he faced and Pete Doggett came in and got another strikeout to escape the jam.

The Crusaders went ahead 3-1 in the eighth. Stimpson beat out a chopper to shortstop to lead off the eighth and moved to second on a throwing error before advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt. Chris Ray singled to right on a 1-2 pitch to give Alvernia a 2-1 lead.

The Cougars threatened in the bottom of the eighth when pinch-hitter Dylan Mazzo reached via hit by pitch with one out. Will Minderjahn pinch-ran and moved to second on Andrew Tressa's single through the left side but Kenny Durling lined into a double play to end the inning.

Alvernia added an insurance run in the ninth when Eric Domitrovits led off with a single to left. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a groundout before scampering home on a passed ball.

Newman brought the tying run to the plate when he reached via hit by pitch for the second time. After a strikeout, Alvernia made a pitching change and got two more strikeouts to end the game.