APRIL 2, 2017

KING'S SOFTBALL SWEPT BY DEFENDING FREEDOM CHAMPION MANHATTANVILLE

WILKES-BARRE -- Defending Freedom Conference champion Manhattanville College took both ends of a league doubleheader against host King's College Sunday in the Betzler Athletic Complex.

The Valiants won the opener 14-4 in 5 innings before rallying for a back-and-forth 6-5 triumph in the nightcap.

In the first game Manhattanville scored three in the first inning, but King's responded with three of its own to tie the game. Megan Beaupre and Rachael DeTore had RBI singles while Alizabeth Ellsworth drove in the third run on an infield grounder.

But Manhattanville added four in the second, two in the third, and five more in the fifth to register the win. Beaupre led King's by going 2-for-3 with a RBI while Ellsworth was 1-for-2 with two RBI, including a solo home run in the fourth inning. Samantha Bloom took the pitching loss, allowing eight earned runs on 10 hits in two and two-thirds innings.

In the second game King's took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Lexi Wolk singled and scored on a double by Beaupre. After Manhattanville took a 2-1 lead in the second, King's tied up the game in the third when Wolk reached base on a fielder's choice and later scored on a single by Rachael DeTore.

Manhattanville recaptured the lead at 4-3 with two solo home runs in the fifth, but King's countered in the bottom of the frame when Amber Saylor walked, Wolk was hit by a pitch, and Beaupre drilled a towering three-run home run over the left field fence to put the Monarchs on top 5-4.

But the Valiants responded in the sixth with what proved to be the winning runs with a two-run home run to take a 6-5 lead.

Beaupre was 3-for-4 with four RBI, a double, and a three run home run for King's. DeTore was 2-for-3 with a RBI while Wolk was 1-for-3 and scored three runs. Kristina Kocher took the pitching loss for King's, allowing all six runs, five earned, on 10 hits in six innings of work,

King's will host the University of Scranton Monday in a 3:30 PM doubleheader in the Betzler Complex.