READING, Pa. - In the most important doubleheader of the season, senior lefty Tim Flannery (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cumberland Valley) set the tone for a crazy day of conference baseball as he became the single season strikeout leader at Albright College Saturday afternoon at Kelchner Field.

The Lions (17-16-1/7-8 Commonwealth) needing to earn just one win to make into the conference playoffs did it in dramatic fashion as they defeated Arcadia (5-30/2-13 Commonwealth) by the final score of 1-0 in the opener. They then handed the Knights their third loss of the series in the nightcap, by the final score of 6-5 in 10 innings.

Flannery, who broke the all-time career strikeout record just one week ago, picked up his 73rd strikeout of the season in game one of Saturday's twinbill. The original record of 72 strikeouts was set in 1993 by Rich Menseck '93.

Going into the contest Flannery had 61 strikeouts on the year. The Mechanicsburg native was nearly perfect in his lone appearance fanning a total of 12 batters while only allowing four hits to pick up his first shutout of the year as well.

For the red and white, they were held to just three hits on the day, by senior pitcher Steve Vassalotti. Despite the low hitting contest, the Knights came very close to breaking the game wide open in the top of the fifth.

After giving up three straight singles to load the bases, Flannery retired the next three batters to in order to keep Arcadia off the scoreboard. The Lions game winning seventh inning initially got started on a Casey Lawrence (McSherrystown, PA/Delone Catholic) walk. Lawrence then moved into scoring position following a sacrifice bunt from senior Jason Dunkelberger (Shillington, PA/Governor Mifflin).

The Knights then intentionally walked sophomore shortstop Justin Danser (Ewing, NJ/Ewing) putting a man on first and second with only one out on the scoreboard. Driving in the game winning run was junior Mike Nolan (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin) on a single to left center. Lawrence got a great jump on the hit and was able to get around third and beat out the play at the plate to give his team the huge win.

While that was going, Widener University picked up a 7-5 victory over Messiah in game one of their doubleheader, which knocked the Falcons out of the playoffs indefinitely.

Even with their playoff spot secured the Lions wanted to continue their new found momentum in the nightcap.

Albright jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead after the third. Freshman pitcher Tyler Storms (Fleetwood, PA/Fleetwood) did a sensational job of finding his spots, to keep the Knights off the scoreboard. Looking to the seal the victory in the later part of the contest, the red and white scored an additional two runs in the sixth to go up 5-0.

Unfortunately, their large lead did not last in the seventh as the Knights recorded five unanswered runs to even the score at 5-5. Pacing this huge comeback was a three run home run from Matt Rottet and a one run shot from Anthony Champi. The Knights first run of the inning came on an RBI triple from Tim Wiand, which scored teammate Rich Schlamowitz.

Following a scoreless bottom half of the frame, the two teams continued their heated contest into extra innings. The game remained tied through the eighth and ninth innings. Junior pitcher Joe Clark (Warminster, PA/William Tennent) entered the game in the top of the 10th to help keep the Knights offense at bay. Clark went on to earn his first win of the season following the game winning home run by Danser in the bottom half of the 10th.

Danser's one run bomb to right-center was his first of the year, and was the second time this season that he recorded the game winning hit at Kelchner Field.

In other Commonwealth Conference action, Elizabethtown secured the number one spot in this year's tournament after splitting with Lebanon Valley College. LVC finished the regular season in second place, while Widener closed out their 2009 season in third.

Albright, which is hosting this year's conference tournament at Owls Field will face Elizabethtown College on Thursday at 4 p.m. Lebanon Valley will take on Widener University at 7:30 p.m.