BOX SCORE (Game 1)
BOX SCORE (Game 2)

Wilkes-Barre, PA (April 18, 2011) – The DeSales University baseball team wasted an opportunity to stay ahead of the pack in the Freedom Conference playoffs race and instead of fallen back into the pack, dropping all three games to King's College, including both ends of a doubleheader at Lipo Field on Monday afternoon by scores of 3-2 and 6-5.

The Bulldogs (13-12, 8-5 Freedom) will now need to claw, fight, and battle their way into the playoffs with eight more games against Freedom Conference competition over the next two weeks including five vs. FDU-Florham and Misericordia University, the two teams in first place and tied for second place in the current Freedom Conference standings.

King's (11-15-1, 6-7-1 Freedom) plays its way back into the playoff race with the three-game sweep, including two walk-off wins on Monday and a come-from-behind win on Friday in the series opener after DSU opened up a 5-0 lead in the first inning on Friday.

In the first game on Monday, KC led 1-0 after one inning on an RBI triple from Mike Fignar before the Bulldogs tied the game at one when senior Doc Neiman hit a solo home run to left-center, his first dinger of the season in the fifth inning. This came after the Bulldogs squandered prime scoring opportunities in both the first and second inning having a runner on third with less than two outs in both innings, but both times were unable to plate the important runs.

DSU also had first and second with one out in the sixth inning but were unable to get that clutch hit until the seventh inning when once again Neiman came thru drawing a two-out walk, stealing second base and then scoring when sophomore Brian Mauro came up clutch with an RBI single down the right field line to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.

King's however responded as an error to start the inning put a runner on first base. After a sacrifice bunt moved the lead-off runner to second base, head coach Tim Neiman made the move to the Bulldogs closer, but junior Travis Hughes couldn't close the door for sophomore starter Dan Gayeski, allowing a double to Joey Troxell scoring the tying run and after two walks and a wild pitch, Troxell scored the game-winner on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Fignar to end the game.

Gayeski pitched well in the loss, allowing just one earned run over 6.1 innings, striking out five without issuing a walk. Neiman and Mauro did most of the offensive damage with four of the seven DeSales' hits, including both RBIs.

The second game was back and forth all afternoon. King's took a 2-0 lead on a two-run home run by Chris Sweeney in the first inning before the Bulldogs countered with two runs in the second inning on an RBI groundout from junior Jason Hadinger and a sacrifice fly from sophomore Chris Zucchi and a solo run in the third to take a 3-2 lead on an RBI single from Neiman.

The Monarchs however went right back on top in the bottom of the third when Sweeney hit his second straight two-run home run to put the hosts up 4-3. DeSales tied it in the top of the fourth on another sac fly from Zucchi, King's re-took the lead in the fifth with one run and the Bulldogs made it five all in the sixth when Neiman singled, stole second, stole third and scored on Hadinger's second RBI ground out of the night.

King's went quietly in the bottom of the sixth as did DeSales in the top of the seventh but in the bottom of the seventh, the Monarchs' Anthony Re doubled to lead-off the inning. Hughes came in relief again after the lead-off double and retired the first batter as Re scampered over to third base with one out but Rob Lemoncelli singled home Re with one out giving KC a 6-5 win and a sweep of the series.

Sophomore Colby Pacillo took the loss allowing all six runs over six innings pitched, striking out three. Neiman had two more hits, senior Ronnie Wentz had one hit and scored once, Chrismer scored twice, and Hadinger and Zucchi each had two RBIs in the game two loss.

The Bulldogs will look to end this four-game slide tomorrow when they travel to Ursinus College for a non-conference game beginning at 3:30 pm.