Gwynedd Valley, PA – Keystone College's baseball team took Sunday's rubber match of a key, regular season series against Gwynedd Mercy University in convincing fashion, defeating the Griffins 16-1 in Colonial States Athletic Conference action.  The Giants, who now control their postseason fate, climb above .500 for the first time this season while improving to 12-11 overall and 8-2 in conference play while Gwynedd Mercy drops to 13-10-1 this spring and 7-2 in the CSAC.
 
On a sunny day in Gwynedd Valley on Sunday, Lymbel Guerrero (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical) gave Keystone a perfect start in the top of the first inning by lifting a three-run home run to left field to give the Giants an early, 3-0 advantage.  The visitors pushed their lead to 5-0 the following inning as Gaston Rojas (Carmel, NY/Carmel) scored a double to left-center by Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) before coming around to scoring on an error by the Griffins following a single off the bat of Kevin Catherina (Ridgefield, NJ/St. Mary (Rutherford)).
 
Gwynedd Mercy got a run back in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI single but David Blount, but Keystone countered with a pair of runs in the visitor's fourth to take a 7-1 lead.  Domenick Montanaro (Egg Harbor Township, NJ/Egg Harbor Township) scored on a Guerrero triple before Anthony Muccio (Tarrytown, NY/Archbishop Stepinac) drove home Guerrero with a single up the middle.
 
Keystone put the game out of reach with an eight-run fifth inning that saw the Giants' lead swell to 15-1.  Andre Castro (Kingston, NY/Kingston) hit a bases loaded triple to bring in three runs before scoring on a Catherina base hit.  Muccio collected his second RBI of the game by drawing a bases loaded walk before Ricky Riscica (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) scored when Rick McLaughlin (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) hit into a fielder's choice.  Cody Darley (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) knocked in Guerrero with a single to right later in the inning before McLaughlin scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Reyes for the Giants' eighth run of the inning.
 
Keystone capped the scoring in the eighth inning when Dylan Corl (Morrisdale, PA/West Branch ) scored when Kevin Luciano (Everett, MA/Cambridge Rindge and Latin School) doubled to the gap in right-center.
 
Catherina led the Giants with three hits while Guerrero finished the afternoon 2-3 with four RBIs.  Muccio and Reyes also had multi-hit games for Keystone, who collected 16 hits as a team while getting 19 position players and four pitchers into the contest.
 
Mike Pembleton (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Township) improved to 2-1 on the season after turning in a fine start on the mound for the Giants, scattering six hits and allowing one run while striking out one batter in six innings of work.  Jake Granteed (West Pittston, PA/Wyoming Area) allowed one hit and struck out one in a scoreless inning of work before turning the ball over to Austin Barefoot (Alexandria, PA/Tyrone Area), who pitched a perfect eighth inning.  Junior Lazaro (Passaic, NJ/Passaic) got the final three outs of the game, including a pair by the K.
 
Gwynedd Mercy starter Jamey Minnemeyer was charged with the loss after surrendering seven runs on seven hits in four innings of work.  The Griffins used five other pitchers to close out the final five innings of the game.
 
The hosts got hits from seven different players in the loss, all of which were singles.
 
Keystone will travel to Misericordia University on Monday afternoon for a non-conference game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in Dallas, PA.  The Giants will look to avenge an 8-6 loss suffered to the Cougars on March 6^th in the first game of Keystone's spring break trip in March.