WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (April 14, 2021) – The Stevens Institute of Technology baseball team rallied from behind for the second consecutive game as they erased an early 6-2 deficit to defeat King's College 12-8 Wednesday at Lipo Field.

The Ducks defeated the Monarchs for the third time this season after taking a pair of games to open the year on March 7th in Hoboken to move to 13-6 overall and remain in second place in the MAC Freedom standings. King's, meanwhile, falls to 4-11 overall this season.

"Anytime you can win on the road that's a good thing," head coach Kristaps Aldins said. "We were able to keep the momentum offensively from Tuesday's late-inning comeback. Michael Reyes continued to produce for us in a big way and Brett Mendez was on base all day. Frankie Tonina also gave us a big spark with his 2 for 4 effort and a key RBI as well as solid defense behind the plate."

In a game that saw Stevens take a 2-0 lead, fall behind 6-2, re-take the lead 9-6, nearly give up the advantage at 9-8 and tack on three late to make the final score 12-8, the Ducks got hits from eight of nine starters in the win while six different student-athletes had at least one RBI.

On the mound, meanwhile, Reyes was touched up a bit in his first collegiate pitching start but was picked up by his bullpen as Jacob Buurman, Chandler Brierley, Roy Iversen and Anthony Pron all combined to allow just one earned run over the final seven innings of the game to earn the win.

Stevens got the scoring started in the top half of the first as Reyes and Thomas Paulich both singled, advanced to second on an error and scored on a wild pitch and an RBI groundout by Ryan Wall, respectively, to go ahead 2-0.

The Monarchs responded quickly in the bottom half of the inning as they used a bases loaded walk and a pair of RBI singles to take a 3-2 lead before Reyes got a groundout back to him with the bases still juiced to end the threat.

The bottom half of the second looked eerily similar for King's as they tacked on three more thanks to an error and a two-RBI double from Seth Laky to swell the lead to 6-2. All three runs in the inning for Reyes were unearned as he exited the game having given up three earned runs on seven hits while striking out three in two innings of work.

The Ducks were able to cut into the deficit with a three-run inning of their own in the top half of the third to make the score 6-5.

Mendez led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a four-pitch walk by Reyes. After a double-steal put both guys in scoring position with two outs, the hero from Tuesday's walk-off win delivered once again as Wall doubled to right to score a pair.

One batter later, Ben Tobio continued his hot streak with a double of his own to plate Wall and cut the deficit down to one.

Just an inning later, Reyes put the Ducks back on top as he singled into center to bring home Tonina and Mendez who singled and doubled, respectively, to sit in scoring position with one away.

Stevens scored for the third consecutive inning in the top half of the fifth when Christian Kreiser doubled home Tobio and Tonina switched places with his fellow catching counterpart with a double of his own to bring the score to 9-6.

After putting up their first zero in four innings in the top of the sixth, the Monarchs clawed back into the game as an RBI groundout from Matt Mellinger as well as a two-out RBI single off the bat of Brendan Mozeleski trimmed the deficit to just one at 9-8.

Much as they had done all game, however, the Ducks responded in the seventh.

After Kreiser walked with one away, Chris Zickert put a pair of runners on with a single into center and an error on a ground ball by Tonina loaded the bases for Mendez.

The junior came through with some big insurance as he roped a single down the first base line to plate a pair and push the lead back to three at 11-8.

One batter later, the score became 12-8 as Reyes drove in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly.

The score remained the same throughout the remainder of the game, but King's did threaten to change that in the bottom half of the ninth.

After two of the first three batters were retired to put a runner at first with two outs, Pat Noone singled up the middle to bring the tying run into the on deck circle.

Now a save situation, the Ducks knew exactly where to turn as Pron came on and got his conference-best fifth save of the year, inducing a fielder's choice groundout to end the game.

Buurman (1-0) picked up his first collegiate win as he was effective in relief, allowing just two runs (one earned) on six hits and striking out a career-best seven batters.

Working out of the bullpen for the first time this season, Brierley was also solid in relief as he did not give up a hit in 1 1/3 scoreless innings, getting three of the four outs via the strikeout.

After Brierley, Tuesday night's winning pitcher Roy Iversen came on and tossed 1 2/3, allowing just two hits and fanning a pair.

"Buurman really found his groove today giving us three-plus critical innings in the middle part of the game," Aldins said. "And with the game on the line Chandler got his midweek pen in via live game action, bridging the gap between Roy and Anthony who closed it out."

In total, only four of the eight runs given up by the Ducks were earned in the contest while only one of Stevens' 12 runs was unearned.

The Ducks will now turn their attention to the weekend as they face off against Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus in a four-game set starting Saturday. The first two games of the series will take place in Madison, N.J. starting at 11:00 a.m.

Live stats and video for the entire series will be available on StevensDucks.com.

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