KING'S BASEBALL COMPLETES SEASON SWEEP OF DESALES WITH TWO WALK-OFF WINS
WILKES-BARRE – Behind powerful pitching and timely hitting the King's College baseball team completed a season sweep of league rival DeSales University Monday afternoon at Lipo Field. The Monarchs grabbed game one 3-2 in their final at-bats, before taking a 6-5 walk-off win in game two of the twin bill.
Following the sweep King's improves its overall mark to 11-15-1 while standing 6-7-1 in Freedom play. DeSales falls to 13-12 overall and 8-5 in conference games..
In game one, King's took an early 1-0 lead when Rob Lemoncelli singled and later scored on a triple to left-center from Mike Fignar. DeSales tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth using a Doc Neiman home run to knot the game up.
The visiting Bulldogs then struck for another run in the top of the seventh to take a 2-1 lead. Neiman walked and stole second to setup the inning. A Bulldog single down the right field line scored Neiman to give DeSales a short-lived advantage going to the bottom of the seventh.
In King's final at-bats, Matt Pritchard reached on an error by the third basemen to lead things off. Anthony Re sacrifice bunted the runner over to second to setup the game-tying run. Joey Troxell would deliver a huge one-out double to right-center to tie the game at 2-2. After a Lemoncelli walk, both runners moved up one base on a DeSales wild pitch. From there, Fignar connecting on a deep fly ball to right field where Troxell tagged-up and scored easily to complete the late inning rally and capture the 3-2 win.
Pitching was key for King's throughout as Pat Matthews went all seven innings allowing seven hits and two earned runs to record the win. Matthews used both sides of the plate as well as his off-speed pitches striking out seven Bulldogs while only walking three.
Troxell went 2-for-4 with one run, while Fignar finished 1-for-3 including the game-winning RBI. Brenton Eades was also hot at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance.
If game one was a pitching display, game two proved to be one of the home run for the Monarchs. King's jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after one inning thanks to a deep two-run bomb by Chris Sweeney. DeSales answered in their next at-bats tying the game at 2-2 using two hits and two stolen bases.
After the Bulldogs took their first lead of the contest at 3-2 in the third, Sweeney stepped to the plate again with a runner on first and one out. The King's sophomore outfielder smacked his second two-run home run over the left field fence to put the Monarchs back on top 4-3.
DeSales answered with a run in the fourth to tie the game for a second time at 4-4. In the King's fifth, Troxell continued his fine hitting, poking a single down the left field line. After stealing second, Troxell moved to third on a Sweeney fly out to deep centerfield. Fignar would come to the rescue yet again with an RBI single up the middle scoring Troxell to give King's a 5-4 lead.
DeSales used two more hits in the sixth to tie the game for the third time at 5-5 and setup the second dramatic finish of the afternoon.
The King's seventh began with an Anthony Re double. Troxell grounded out to short to move Re to third with one out. From there, Lemoncelli emerged as the hero, sending a 2-1 pitch to right-center to score Re and complete the season sweep for the Monarchs.
Sweeney finished 2-for-3 with two homers and four RBI, upping his season total to seven long balls, equaling King's single-season school record previously established by Ron Flora (1992) and Mike Venarchick (2006). Troxell went 2-for-4 with two runs, while Lemoncelli was 1-for-3 with one RBI.
On the mound, Levi Tate started and went five innings allowing five hits and five runs. Troxell entered in the sixth going two innings allowing just one hit and no Bulldog runs to post the win.
King's will look to continue their momentum from this weekend when they host Manhattanville College Wednesday at Lipo Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
