Old Westbury, NY (May 11, 2011) – Rival Old Westbury bested Purchase 11-2 in Wednesday night's ECAC Metro Baseball Championship opener.

In the process, OW advanced to “Semifinal Saturday,” eliminating the Panthers from the ECACs. The win sends fourth-seeded Old Westbury (24-19) into Saturday's battle with top-seeded Rutgers-Newark in Newark, New Jersey. Purchase concluded its season at 17-15 and 0-2 between the two rounds of playoff baseball in conference and in the ECACs.

No. 5 Purchase broke the scoring ice in the second inning as Josh Spielberg (JR/Oceanside, NY) scored on a fielder's choice. Old Westbury roared back with two runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good. Later, Old Westbury scored four run in the fifth off four hits and an error. In the sixth, Old Westbury used three hits and two errors to tack on three.

Austin Groves (SR/Stratford, CT) singled up the middle in the seventh to drive home Kevin McQuade (JR/Mamaroneck, NY) for the final Purchase run. Old Westbury added another run in the eighth to seal it.

Corey Murphy (4-5) had a strong outing for Old Westbury, registering a season-best seven strikeouts after recording five during five separate starts. Murphy worked seven innings, allowing two runs on nine hits and two walks before Steven Chapter logged two innings of hitless relief.

Albert Baez (SR/New York, NY) took the loss for Purchase, dropping his record to 4-2.

Groves and McQuade tallied multiple hits to lead the Purchase offense in defeat.

-OW Sports Information Contributed to this report