Box Score
King's Baseball Falls to DeSales in Opener of Weekend Series
Wilkes-Barre, Pa. -- The King's College baseball team dropped its home opener to DeSales 17-6 Friday afternoon at Lipo Field.
The Monarchs got on the board in the bottom of the first when
Ryan Civello singled home
Joe Zito with two outs to give King's a 1-0 edge.
DeSales answered back with three runs of its own in the top of the second. After a Mike Kacergis ground out the Bulldogs strung together three straight hits to load the bases. Tom DePaul laid down a bunt and forced King's third baseman
Tim Zaccone to shuffle the ball to the plate, but the flip skimmed off the glove of the catcher allowing a pair of runs to score. DeSales would add another run on a King's throwing error to put the Bulldogs up 3-1.
The Bulldogs notched another run in the top of the third to extend the lead to 4-1. King's rallied in the bottom of the frame started by a single by Zaccone.
Joe Zito sacrificed the runner to second and Greg Bartles put runners on the corners with a single to left.
Anthony Lizzi plated Zaccone with a two-strike single to right putting runners on first and third. Civello drove in his second run on a ground ball back to the pitcher that was misplayed by the shortstop. The Monarchs tacked on more runs to take a 5-4 lead after three.
In the fifth inning DeSales retook the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth when a two out wild pitch went to the backstop and both Charles Dennis and Mark Fuse came around to score. The Bulldogs pulled away in the sixth taking advantage of three Monarch errors to tally four runs and push the lead to 10-5.
King's got one of the runs back in the bottom of the sixth, but DeSales scored two in the seventh and five more in the ninth to ice the game.
The Monarch defense had a rough game committing 10 errors and allowing 12 unearned runs to cross the plate.
Dan Gayeski picked up the win for the Bulldogs going 3.2 innings of relief giving up one unearned run. Chris Zampini picked up a save for three scoreless innings of relief.
Shawn Heck took the loss for King's going five innings allowing six runs, two earned, striking out five and walking two.
Zaccone collected two hits for the Monarchs and scored a run.
Stephen Brynok also chipped in two hits to go with an RBI and one run scored.
Joe Civello finished 2-for-2 after coming in to pinch hit in the sixth.
Dennis paced the DeSales offense with a 5-for-6 day with five RBIs, five runs scored and a pair of home runs. Fuse collected three hist as did Tommy DePaul.
The Monarchs fall to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in the Freedom Conference while DeSales moves to 2-7 overall and 1-0 in league play.
The two teams play again Saturday in Center Valley in a pair of seven inning games set for a 12:00 p.m. start.
