WILKES-BARRE – The King's College softball team continued its dominance of the Freedom Conference Championship Tournament as the Lady Monarchs posted a 10-2 victory over Manhattanville College in a game halted after six innings Saturday at the Betzler Complex.
With the win, King's improved to 18-11 on the year while winning the program's 10
th conference championship in the past 12 years. King's will also be making its 11
th trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament in 12 seasons. Manhattanville, which entered the tournament as the fourth seed and reached the championship game with upsets of top-seeded DeSales and second-seeded FDU-Florham Saturday morning, ended its run with a 16-18 campaign.
Manhattanville jumped on top in the game's first at-bats when Lindsay Zekus drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. Samantha Howe then delivered a RBI single to give the Valiants a 1-0 lead.
In King's half of the inning.
Jenn Harnischfeger led off with a double. After an infield out moved Harnischfeger to third,
Amanda Cardone and
Brittny Baynes drew back-to-back walks. After Harnischfeger scored on a passed ball to tie the game at 1-1,
Rebecca Taylor drew a walk to load the bases. Kaitlyn Siegfried followed with a two-run single to give the Lady Monarchs a 3-1 lead.
The game would then get put on hold for a 2.5 hour rain delay and did not start again until 5:45 p.m.
After play resumed the score would remain the same until the bottom of the sixth.
King's
Erin Beane led off with a single and stole second, followed by a walk to Cardone. After a wild pitch advanced both runners Baynes drove in a run on a fielding error by the Valiants to give the Lady Monarchs a 4-1 lead. Taylor then delivered a RBI single to bring home Cardone to push the score to 5-1.
Kayla Rutkoski followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Baynes from third as the King's advantage grew to 6-1. After
Gretchen Tholen walked to load the bases,
Rachel Zinni came through with a two-run single to push the score to 8-1
Manhattanville pushed across a run in the top of the sixth when Amanda Locke doubled and scored on a double by Kim Angiolillo to cut the King's lead to 8-2.
In the bottom of the inning, Cardone led off with a single to right and scored on a triple to right field by Baynes to give King's a 9-2 lead. Taylor then smacked a single to left to score Baynes as the game ended on the eight run mercy rule.
King's nine-hit attack was led by Zinni, who was 2-for-3 with two RBI. Taylor was 2-for-2 with two RBI while Baynes went 1-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored. Cardone was 1-for-3 with three run and was named the tournament most valuable player. Haight was the winning pitcher, scattering eight hits and allowing two earned runs.
For Manhattanville, Angiollillo was 2-for-3 with a RBI while Howe was 1-for-3 with a RBI. Howe was the losing pitcher, allowing 10 runs, nine earned, on nine hits while striking out one batter.
King's will now await word on its NCAA tournament fortunes. The announcement is expected to come Monday.
