Monarchs Use Two Big Innings to Down Pacers
Matt Newcomb's first homer of the year wasn't enough Wednesday as Marywood fell to King's

Monarchs Use Two Big Innings to Down Pacers

- 3/18/2009 6:56:13 PM

BOX SCORE

Scranton, PA – King's College used two big innings and pounded 17 hits on the day as the visiting Monarchs improved to 10-5 on the year with a 17-7 win over host Marywood University in non-conference baseball action Wednesday afternoon in Scranton. Marywood falls to 3-7 with the loss. The game was called after eight full innings due to darkness.

King's opened the scoring with one in the first and two in the second. In the first, Eric Matula hit a one-out double off to the right field fence and with two outs was brought home by an RBI single from Matt Unger. In the second, Mike Fignar's hit a two-out double to score Matt Feci and Pat Harsch to give the Monarchs a 3-0 lead. Fignar's shot to the centerfield fence was his team-leading sixth double of the year.

King's continued the scoring in the third and extended their lead to double-digits as the Monarchs plated seven runs on six hits while batting around. Gracjan Kraszewski opened the inning with a walk and moved to third on Unger's single to right. Sean Rooney then squeezed a grounder by first base to plate Kraszewski and the Monarchs took a 4-0 lead. Rob Fravel gave King's a 5-0 lead with a blooper to short left and Jim Troianiello hit a double to right center to make it 6-0.

The Monarch's extended their lead to 9-0 when an error on Matula's deep fly to center allowed Fignar to score all the way from first. King's then plated their seventh run of the third inning on a Kraszewski RBI double to left center. Marywood reliever Mike Siciliano (Whippany, NJ) came on and got a strikeout to end the inning.

Siciliano made quick work of the Monarch's in the top of the fourth as he struck out the first two batters and forced a grounder to third to end the inning. In the bottom half of the fourth, Matt Newcomb (Honesdale, PA) ripped a one-out double to deep right center for Marywood's fifth hit of the day off King's starter Andrew DeGiacomo. A King's error on TJ Czerw's deep shot to center moved Newcomb to third and the senior would score on Jason Lane's (Moosic, PA) RBI single to right. Shane Miller (Scranton, PA) cut the King's lead to 10-2 with a RBI double to right center and Ed Zakrzewski (Three Bridges, NJ) hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Lane to make it 10-3.

Marywood continued their comeback in the bottom half of the fifth when Joe Diskin started things with a walk and then stole second. Diskin (Clarks Summit, PA) would move to third on Mike Castellano's (Brooklyn, NY) groundout to second and score on Ryan Cusomato's (Sparta, NJ) infield single to short. Newcomb then took King's reliever Phil Moskowitz's 1-0 pitch deep over the left field fence for his first round-tripper of the year.

Sean Rooney opened the top of the sixth with a triple to right-center for the Monarchs and would score on Troianiello's ground-out to short to put King's back up by five, 11-6. In the bottom of the sixth, Marywood's Zakrzewski put a shot down the left field line for his first double of the year and scored with two outs on an error by King's off a Castellano pop-up. King's got that run back and more in the seventh with a sixth-run inning to reclaim a commanding ten run lead (17-7).

Stefano Curto (Coopersburg, PA) took the loss on the mound for the Pacers. Curto, now 0-2 on the year, allowed 10 runs (8 earned) on ten hits over 2.2 innings of work. Siciliano struck out five over four full innings of work, allowing seven runs (five earned) on four hits. Both Curto and Siciliano walked two on the day. Jeff Cleary (Parsippany, NJ) pitched the final 1.1 innings for the Pacers, allowing three hits and striking out one.

For King's, Moskowitz picked up the win on the mound despite pitching only one inning. Starter DeGiamcomo allowed three runs on seven hits, while Moskowitz allowed three on two Marywood hits. Ryan Derry pitched two full innings, striking out four, while Dan Jenkins closed for the Monarchs, striking out two of the three batters he faced in the eighth.

Offensively, Fignar led King's with a 2-5, 3-RBI effort. Kraszewski was 2-4 with two RBIs and Rooney, Fravel, Troianiello and Feci each picked up two RBIs as well. Newcomb finished the day 2-4 with the homer for Marywood, while Shane Miller finished 2-4 as well.

Marywood returns to action Saturday with a non-conference doubleheader at Widener University.
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