APRIL 22, 2016
MONARCHS EQUAL SCHOOL HOME RUN RECORD AGAINST MISERICORDIA
WILKES-BARRE, PA --- The King's College baseball team equaled the modern era single season home run record in a 16-4 series-opening loss to conference leader Misericordia University on Friday afternoon at Lipo Field in Wilkes-Barre. Kyle Lupas hit the Monarchs' record-tying 19th home run of the year with a bomb down the left field line in the sixth inning.
The Cougars improve to 23-9 and 12-4 in Freedom play with the win while King's drops to 19-9 overall and 8-6 in the conference.
The 19 home runs this year equals the modern era record held by the 2011 squad that was led by former Monarch All-American Chris Sweeney with 13. This year's squad is led by Sean Padden and Chris Rebar with seven each while Lupas and Ryan Hydock have hit two each and Bruce Breithaupt has one.
Misericordia scored two runs in the first to take the early lead. King's got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the inning and were poised to score more but left the base loaded to end the inning. The Cougars added a run in the third and fourth inning to take a 4-1 lead. The Monarchs were able to get at least two runners on base each inning but were unable to score before making the third out. In total King's left 10 runners stranded through the first four innings.
Misericordia broke the game open with five runs in the fifth inning on four hits and one error. King's got two of those runs back in the bottom of the inning when Tom Gibbons knocked a 3-2 pitch down the left field line for a two RBI double scoring Nick Trivigino and Christian Pack.
The Cougars added two more runs in the sixth before Lupas hit his record-tying home run in the bottom of the inning. In the seventh the Cougars took advantage of two King's errors and added the last five runs of the game on three hits including a grand slam from D.J. Navoczynski.
King's was led at the plate by Tom Gibbons who had two hits and knocked in two runs and scored once. Christian Pack also had two hits and scored a run. On the mound John Wickiser pitched 4.1 innings and allowed 11 hits and nine runs, seven of which were earned, and struck out two. Jared Smigelski, Connor Balloun, Anthony Peacock, and Connor Agnew all pitched in relief allowing a combined seven, only four earned, on six hits, three walks, and struck out three.
The Cougars were led by Jeremy DeCotiis with four hits in five at-bats with two RBIs and two runs scored. D.J. Navoczynski knocked in five runs on two hits with four coming on his seventh inning grand slam. Kyle Lindsay had three hits and scored three runs. Cougar ace Ryan Dorosh got the win on the mound and allowed three runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and six walks in five innings.
King's and Misericordia will conclude their three-game series on Saturday with two games on Saturday in Dallas at Tambur Field beginning at 12:00 p.m.