Bucknell falls to Holy Cross in Patriot League title game, 14-11

Bucknell’s season ended with a 14-11 Game 3 loss to Holy Cross at Depew Field at Marren Park, closing a home postseason run that briefly made Lewisburg the center of Patriot League baseball. Holy Cross repeated as league champion and earned the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Baseball Regionals, while Bucknell finished as a tough runner-up after reaching the title series as the No. 2 seed.

The finale had the feel of a season compressed into one game. Both teams used five pitchers, and neither staff settled comfortably into a tight strike zone, which helped turn the championship decider into a high-scoring, uneasy affair instead of a cleanly scripted finish. Bucknell scored 11 runs on 13 hits, but Holy Cross answered with 14 and held off a late rally to become the first No. 4 seed to win the Patriot League baseball championship. The Crusaders also claimed their second straight league title, adding to the momentum they built by ending Army West Point’s six-year run atop the conference in 2025.

Wednesday’s matchup was the first Game 3 in the Patriot League Championship Series since 2022 and only the ninth time the best-of-three format had gone the distance since 2008. That made the final day at Marren Park a rare showcase for Bucknell baseball and for a campus that had been living with postseason baseball for several days. Bucknell had swept No. 3 Navy in the semifinals to get there, then forced the deciding game with a 9-5 victory in Game 2.

Bucknell’s comeback in Game 2 was powered by junior shortstop Ty Lagoni, whose two-run homer in the seventh inning gave the Bison a 5-4 lead. Junior second baseman and outfielder Andrew Swenson added an RBI single, and junior center fielder Billy Fluharty drew a bases-loaded walk as Bucknell pushed the series one game longer. Holy Cross, though, had already shown its own closing power. Senior center fielder CJ Egrie opened Game 1 by homering on the first pitch, and senior right-hander Jaden Wywoda later earned Patriot League Baseball Championship Series MVP honors after throwing a complete-game win in Game 1 and returning for 4.2 innings of relief in Game 3 to record the save, even after throwing more than 120 pitches earlier in the series.

For Bucknell, the finish left a strong 26-22 season and a 17-9 Patriot League mark with a clear next step. The Bison were chasing their first league title since 2014 and their seventh overall, and the three-game series showed they can still play at the top of the league. With Lagoni, Swenson and Fluharty among the key pieces returning, the postseason run gave the program a foundation to build on after a championship stage that reached Lewisburg and ended just short of a title.