La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College opened its quest for a ninth consecutive Colonial States Athletic Conference title with a 12-5 victory over Gwynedd Mercy University in a first round playoff game on Wednesday at Christy Mathewson Field. The top-seeded Giants, who have now won 25 straight CSAC playoff games, are now 29-12 on the season.
 
The CSAC Championships now move to PNC Field in Moosic on Friday and Saturday with Keystone taking on #3 Neumann University, a 10-2 winner at #2 Immaculata University, at 11:00 a.m. in a winner's bracket matchup while Immaculata will take on Gwynedd Mercy in an elimination game starting at 3:00 p.m.
 
Keystone took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday's contest when Chris Panzarella (Hazle Township, Pa./Hazleton Area) looped a single down the right field line to score Brendan Long (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier) from second before taking a 2-0 advantage the following inning when Long singled to left center to bring home Tony Hunter II (Savannah, Ga./South Effingham).
 
The hosts pushed their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Anthony Ferrezza (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip) singled up the middle to bring in Hunter, but Gwynedd Mercy (23-15-1) countered with three runs on three hits and one error in the top of the fifth inning to knot the game up at 3-3.
 
Billy Nelson (Moscow, Pa./North Pocono) put Keystone back in front with one swing of the back in the Giants' next trip to the plate, blasting a two-run home run over the left field wall to give the hosts a 5-3 lead.
 
The hosts extended their lead to 7-3 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning as Bray Curreri (Eldred, N.Y./Eldred Central) drove in Brady Barr (Bowie, Md./Bowie) with a sacrifice fly before Adam Kelly (Beach Lake, Pa./Honesdale) singled home Panzarella.
 
The Griffins got a pair of runs on two hits in the top of visitor's seventh to pull to within 7-5, but Keystone answered with five runs on five hits in the home half of the frame to open up a 12-5 lead. 
 
Panzarella worked a bases-loaded walk before Nelson broke the game open with a bases-clearing, three run double to the wall in left center before coming in to score on a double from Kelly.
 
Keystone starter Troy Terzi (Wallingford, Conn./Notre Dame ) improve to 8-0 on the season, tossing eight innings and yielding five runs on eight hits while striking out four batters.  Joe DeAngelis (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to close out the game, allowing one hit while fanning out one batter.
 
Long collected a game-high four hits, Ferrezza had four hits, and Nelson drove in five runs to power the Giants' offense as the hosts doubled up the Griffins in hits on the day, 18-9.
 
Gwynedd Mercy starter R.J. Boyle suffered the loss after being charged with five runs on 11 hits while striking out two batters in 4.1 innings before the visitors used four relievers to close out the contest.
 
Jason Mulvey, Josh Lopez, and Dave Tatoian had two hits apiece for the Griffins in the loss.