SELINSGROVE, Pa. - A solo home run by Catholic University baseball junior Ben Nardi in the seventh inning powered the Cardinals to a three-game sweep of Susquehanna Sunday, 8-6.

As a result, the Cardinals (28-10, 14-4 LC) currently hold a one game lead over Scranton for the top seed in the 2022 Landmark Conference Baseball Championship.

The Royals, who finished a three-game sweep of Juniata Sunday, have two conference games remaining at home beginning on Monday against Susquehanna and concluding on Saturday, May 7 versus Moravian.

If Scranton wins both games, they will be tied with Catholic atop the Landmark Conference standings, but hold the tiebreaker by virtue of winning two out of three against the Cardinals this season.

As for Sunday, the Cardinals trailed 4-3 after five before scoring three in the sixth and one in the seventh to go ahead for good, 7-4.

Catholic tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth on a throwing error by the River Hawks (14-21, 8-8 LC) before a two-out, two-run double by freshman Dante Pozzi scored graduate student Billy Duke and senior Tommy Antonucci to put the Cardinals in front 6-4.

Nardi then homered to right to leadoff the seventh, providing what proved to be the game-winning run. The solo shot was Nardi's five home run of the season and the 14th of his career. He currently ranks third in program history in career runs, trailing Brennan Cotter (19) and senior Peter Giombetti (16).

The Cardinals scored their final run on a balk in the top of the ninth to push their lead to 8-5 before Susquehanna added its final run on an RBI-double by Sean McCulloch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Pozzi finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs while Giombetti was 2-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored. Freshman Lucas Malave also hit his first career home run with a solo shot in the fourth.

On the mound, junior Tucker Alch won his eighth consecutive start to improve his record to 9-1 this season. He allowed just six hits and three earned runs over 7.0 innings while striking out 12.

Over his last eight starts, Alch is 8-0 with a 2.94 ERA and 73 strikeouts over 55.1 innings. During that time, Catholic has outscored its opponents, 74-29, and he has struckout at least nine in five of those starts.

Meanwhile, junior Brendan Martin worked the ninth to earn his team-leading third save of the season.

The Cardinals have 12 days before the start of the 2022 Landmark Conference Baseball Championship on Friday, May 13 at Scranton's Volpe Field.