APRIL 3, 2017
NEILL PITCHES COMPLETE GAME FOUR-HITTER TO LEAD KING'S TO 3-0 VICTORY
WILKES-BARRE, PA --- Billy Neill pitched a complete game four hitter with five strikeouts to lead the King's College baseball team to a 3-0 victory over Manhattanville in the rubber game of the three-game series on Monday afternoon at Lipo Field in Wilkes-Barre.
King's, who played their first game on their home field this year improves to 10-7 overall and 4-2 in the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom. Manhattanville falls to 7-10 overall and 3-3 in conference play. The win also enables the Monarchs to win the season series over the Valiants. The Monarchs entered the series looking for revenge over the team that knocked them out of the MAC Freedom Tournament last season.
King's scored the first run of the game in the second inning when Christian Pack singled to left and advanced to third on a double to left field by Tom Gibbons. Sean Padden then knocked in Pack with a sacrifice fly to deep left.
The Monarchs put two batters on base in the third inning when Sean McKee reached on a fielding error by the third baseman and Bruce Breithaupt singled thru the right side with two outs. However the Valiants got out of the inning unscathed on a groundout to short.
The Monarchs scored their second run of the game in the fourth when Pack beat out a grounder to short and advanced to second when the throw went wide. Padden knocked him in two batters later with a single to left.
On the mound Neill made quick work of the Valiant hitters allowing just two hits in the first five innings. Manhattanville threaten to score in the sixth when they got a runner to third base with two outs but Neill got the next hitter to fly out to right and then a lineout to third base on the next pitch to get out of the inning. In the seventh the leadoff man hit a double down the leftfield line but once again Neill got out of the inning with no runs by recording a strikeout and two groundouts.
In the eighth inning Rebar drew a leadoff walk and then was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Breithaupt. Kyle Lupas then knocked in him with a single to center.
Neill retired the side in the final two innings to pick up his second win of the year.
Bruce Breithaupt, Christian Pack, and Sean Padden had two hits each for the Monarchs. Padden knocked in two runs and Kyle Lupas had a RBI. Pack scored two runs and Chris Rebar scored once.
Billy Neill threw 96 pitches to pick up the complete game victory. He struck out five and allowed just four hits while facing just 31 batters.
King's will return to the diamond on Wednesday when they travel to Selinsgrove to face Susquehanna University in a non-conference game beginning at 4:00 p.m.