Center Valley, PA (April 13, 2007) – Friday the 13th proved to be a nightmare for the DeSales University baseball team as the Bulldogs allowed double digit runs for the second consecutive game and dropped the three-game series opener to King’s College, 16-11, on Friday afternoon in Freedom Conference action.
A close game early was broken open in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Monarchs (19-3, 10-1 Freedom) scored six times to increase their 4-3 lead into a 10-3 advantage. The lead eventually grew to 13-3 before the Bulldogs (14-8, 6-2 Freedom) scored eight times over the last three innings to provide the final score.
Sophomore James Niesuchouski (Chester, VT/St. Dominic) suffered the loss lasting just four innings allowing 10 hits and six earned runs. DSU hurt themselves once again in the field by making four errors leading to five unearned runs, which was the difference in the game.
The offense continued to put points on the board, scoring double digits for the 14th time in 22 games this season. The sophomore tandem of Matt Connors (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) and Greg Treat (Concord, NH/Concord) combined to go 6-for-9 with five runs scored to lead the attack.
Junior Andrew Heard (Alexandria, VA/Hayfield) was 2-for-4 with a run scored and three RBI’s, junior JT Brotosky (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) had two hits, scoring once and knocking in one run and sophomore Mike Piekarski (Metuchen, NJ/Metuchen) also had two hits to go along with a run scored and one RBI off the bench. Freshman Ryan Blacker (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) was also among the team leaders going 1-for-1 with two RBI’s in the loss.
DSU will look to take the three-game set on Saturday as they host the Monarchs in the second and third game of the weekend series at Butz Field beginning at 1:00 pm.
