APRIL 13, 2018

KING'S BASEBALL TEAM DOWNS FDU-FLORHAM 11-5 IN OPENING MATCHUP IN THREE-GAME WEEKEND SERIES

WILKES-BARRE -- The King's College baseball team registered 12 base hits and took advantage of five FDU-Florham errors as the Monarchs posted an 11-5 victory in the first of a three-game MAC Freedom Conference series Friday at Lipo Field.

With the win, King's improved to 11-13 overall and 4-8 in league games while the Devils slipped to 8-15 and 2-7.

The Monarchs fell behind 1-0 after an inning but took a 3-1 lead in the third inning on the strength of a two-run double by Chris Rebar and a sacrifice fly by Kyle Lupas. The Monarchs added a run in the fourth on a double by Sean Padden and a run-scoring single from Brad Wilkins.

King's stretched the lead to 5-1 in the fifth when Christian Pack reached base on an error and later scored on an RBI single off the bat of Matt Mellinger.

FDU-Florham scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to close to 5-4, King's answered right back with three of their own in the bottom of the fifth, keyed by a two-run double from Shawn Stone, pushing the lead to 8-4. 

After the Devils added a run in the eighth, King's put the game away with another three-run assault in the bottom of the frame. Lupas stroked a two-run double to set the final score.

Pack was 2-for-4 and scored four runs while Rebar went 2-for-5 with a two-run double.Stone finished 2-for-4 with a two-run double while Brad Wilkins was also 2-for-4 with an RBI. Lupas went 1-for-3 with three RBI, including a two-run double while Dan Hartson was 1-for-2 with three runs and drew three walks.

Billy Neill (2-2) picked up the pitching victory, allowing three runs on three hits in five innings. Nick Deno and Matt Hassick both back-to-back scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.

The Monarchs will travel to Madison, NJ Saturday to face FDU-Florham in the final two games with a 12:00 PM doubleheader.