SCRANTON, Pa. – Junior Tyler Kirsten (Wallenpaupack, Pa./Wallenpaupack Area) hit a walk-off double off the left centerfield wall in the bottom of the ninth and The top seeded University of Scranton baseball team (17-8) advanced in the winners bracket with a 4-3 victory over the Moravian Greyhounds (13-17) on Saturday afternoon at Volpe Field in Scranton.

Kirsten's double plated freshman Corey Zientek (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) who had drawn a walk earlier in the inning.

With the win, the Royals will host Susquehanna on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. and a victory would give the Royals a spot in next weekend's Landmark Conference Championship series. Susquehanna would need to defeat Scranton twice in order to advance.

The River Hawks picked up an 11-4 victory over Moravian later in the afternoon to eliminate the Greyhounds.

Junior left-hander Ryan Heiser (New Milford, N.J./Saint Joseph Regional) tossed a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to earn the win for the Royals, while Kyle Serman allowed the run on two hits in 1 2/3 IP and took the loss for Moravian.

The Greyhounds opened the scoring with an RBI double from Brett Moyer in the top of the first and the 1-0 score would hold until the bottom of the fifth when Scranton tied the game. Freshman John Zarnowski (East Brunswick, N.J./St. Joseph's) led off with a single, advanced to second on a hit by pitch, took third on a bunt single and scored on Zientek's sac fly to tie the game at one.

Sophomore righty Daniel Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Immaculata) got the start for the Royals and allowed one run on six hits to go along with two walks and six strikeouts over five innings of work in a no-decision. Freshman right-hander George Sengos (Washington Twp., N.J./Westwood Regional) tossed a scoreless inning in relief of Johnson.

Zientek greeted Moravian reliever Cameron Cooper with a two-run shot to left field on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the seventh and gave the hosts a 3-1 lead for the time being. Moyer answered with a two-run homer of his own in the top of the eighth to tie the game at three.

Moravian starter David Ciaccio surrendered two runs on four hits while walking three and fanning three in 6 1/3 IP.

Kirsten (2-4, 2B, 3B, RBI) and Zientek (2-3, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R) both had multi-hit games for the Royals and senior Kevin Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central) added a hit and two stolen bases.

--ROYALS--