MAY 3, 2011
KING'S SOFTBALL PREPS FOR FREEDOM CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT WITH NON-CONFERENCE SWEEP OF CENTENARY
WILKES-BARRE -- The King's College softball team got in one last tune-up before this weekend's Freedom Conference Tournament as the Lady Monarchs posted a doubleheader sweep of Centenary College Tuesday afternoon in non-conference action. King's won the first game 9-2 before capturing the nightcap 8-2.
The Lady Monarchs ended the regular-season with a 15-11 record while Centenary, a member of the Colonial State Athletic Conference, will enter its own league tournament with a 26-10 mark.
In the opener, King's fell behind 2-0 after the Cyclones' opening at-bats. The Lady Monarchs responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Erin Beane walked before Amanda Cardone reached base on an error. Brittny Baynes then drilled a three-run home run over the centerfield fence to give King's a 3-2 lead.
The Lady Monarchs added two more runs in the second inning on a single by Rachel Zinne and a RBI double from Jenn Harnischfeger, combined with a Centenary error.
King's pushed across two more in the fourth inning when Beane singled and Rebecca Taylor drew a two-put walk. Kayla Rukoski followed with a RBI double to push the lead to 7-2. The Lady Monarchs tallied a run in the eighth when Gretchen Tholen walked and later scored from third on a wild pitch. King's would add an unearned run in the sixth for the final run of the game.
Eight different King's players racked up base hits. Baynes was 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI while Rutkoski finished 1-for-3 with two RBI. Brittany Haight was the winning pitcher, scattering five hits while striking out four batters and allowing one two runs, one earned.
In the nightcap, King's took a 2-0 lead when Beane doubled and Cardone followed with a two-run home run over the left field fence. The Lady Monarchs added run in the fourth when Tholen singled, stole second base, and scored on a base hit by Tina Seber.
After Centenary scored a pair of runs in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 3-2, King's responded in the bottom half of the inning to put the game away with five runs. Seber had an RBI double while Annie Erndl also doubled. Cardone came through with a RBI single while Kaitlyn Sigfried contributed a two-run single.
Harnischfeger went 4-for-4 with a run scored while Cardone was 2-for-4 with two runs and three EBI. Thplen and Seber added two hits apiece. Erndl was the winning pitcher, yielding two earned runs on six hits while striking out nine batters.
King's, which hosts the Freedom Conference Championships Friday and Saturday at the Betzler Athletic Complex, will face second-seeded FDU-Florham at 1:00 p.m. The Lady Monarchs are the third seed.
