APRIL 5, 2010
KING'S BASEBALL SPLITS WITH DESALES
CENTER VALLEY -- The King's College baseball team handed DeSales University its first Freedom Conference loss of the season but the Bulldogs bounced back to take the nightcap as the teams split a doubleheader Monday in Center Valley.
The Monarchs won the first game 3-1 in a game dominated by pitching, but DeSales won the second game in a 20-8 slugfest.
With the split, King's stands at 11-6 overall and 6-3 in Freedom Conference play. DeSales, which won two of three games in the season series between the squads, is 12-8 and 8-1 in Freedom Conference games.
In the opener the Monarchs broke open a scoreless game in the fourth inning when Chris Sweeney was hit by a pitch, stole second base, and moved to third on an infield out. After Jeremy Bonser was hit by a pitch, Sweeney scored on a wild pitch while Bonser moved to second. Brian Mikus then delivered a RBI double to give the Monarchs a 2-0 lead.
The score would remain the same until the top of the sixth inning when Sweeney launched a solo home run over the left field fence to give King's a 3-0 advantage.
DeSales threatened in the seventh inning when Nick Chiovitti walked and moved to third on a double by Kenny Ridge. Carson Slonaker then lofted a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Chiovitti and cut the lead to 3-1. Monarch relief pitcher Dan Jenkins, however, registered the final out when he struck out Andrew Fehr to end the contest.
Tommy Rozelle picked up the win for King's allowing one earned run and five hits in six innings of work, striking out eight batters in the process. Jenkins earned the save, yielding one hit with one strikeout in pitching the final inning.
Sweeney was 2-for-2 with a RBI and scored two runs. Bonser finished 1-for-2 with a run while Mikus went 1-for-3 with a RBI double. Joey Troxell and Rob Lemoncelli both added one hit each.
In the nightcap, King's raced out to a 3-0 lead after the first at-bats of the game, but DeSales countered for six runs in the bottom half of the frame en route to scoring at least one run in every inning. The Bulldogs also added four in the third and five runs in the sixth as part of their 20-hit attack.
The Monarchs did get three hits and two RBI from Eric Matula and two hits each from Mike Kusters and Mike Fignar as part of King's 10-hit offense
The Monarchs return to action on Tuesday when King's hosts SUNY-New Paltz at 4:00 p.m. at the Betzler Athletic Complex.
