BASEBALL

WILKES-BARRE -- The King's college baseball team ended its season on a high note as the Monarchs posted a 6-5 victory over the University of Scranton Wednesday at Betzler Fields.

With the win, King's wrapped up its season with an 18-20-1 mark. Scranton, meanwhile, enters the Landmark Conference playoffs with a 24-13 record.

Scranton took a 2-0 lead in its first at-bats when Charles Comprelli walked and Chris Psihoules and Chris Bligh delivered back-to-back triples.

King's cut the lead to 2-1 in the second inning when Pat McGlynn singled and later scored on a Scranton error.

The Royals added a run in the third inning when Comprelli singled and later scored on a base hit by David Giglio.

The Monarchs countered with a run in the bottom half of the third when Gracjan Kraszewski doubled and scored on another double off the bat of Matt Unger.

The Monarchs would tie the game at 3-3 in the fourth inning when J.R. Graver doubled and came home on a single by Matt Livoy. King's took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning when Pat Harsch singled and came home on a triple by Matt Colgan. Rob Bergmann then delivered a run scoring single to give the Monarchs a 5-3 lead.

Scranton would cut the lead to 5-4 in the sixth inning when Chris Bligh doubled and later scored from third on an infield ground out by Andrew Outhouse.

King's would extend the lead back to two runs in the seventh inning when Harsch singled, stole second, and scored on a base hit off the bat of Joe Tucker to up the King's advantage to 6-4.

Scranton would crawl back to within 6-5 when Bligh was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a base hit by Giglio.

The Royals had one last chance in the ninth when Jeff Manahan stroked a one-out double and Jon Psihoules reached base on infield single. After Comprelli reached base on a fielder's choice to load the bases, King's defense came up big when Kevin grounded into a game-ending double play.

King's, which out hit Scranton 15-9, was led by Harsch who was 3-for-3 with two runs scored. Kraszewski went 2-for-3 with two doubles and tied King's single-season record with his 62nd base hit.
Colgan and Jon Venarchick added two hits each.

Joe Jenkins was the winning pitcher, allowing four earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts in five innings of work. Ryan Derry picked up the save, allowing one run on three hits while recording three strikeouts.

Giglio was 2-for-4 with two RBI while Bligh went 2-for-2 with two runs and an RBI. Scranton starting pitcher Mike Sidlowski took the loss, yielding four runs, three earned, on 13 hits with three strikeouts in six innings.