SCRANTON, Pa. – The top seeded University of Scranton baseball team (19-9) and No. 3 seed Elizabethtown Blue Jays (17-10) split the first two games of the best of three Landmark Conference Championship series on Saturday afternoon at Volpe Field.

The two teams will play a winner take all game three on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. with the winner claiming the Landmark's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

ETown won game one by a score of 13-7 before the Royals bounced back with a 4-0 victory in game two behind seven shutout innings from sophomore right-hander Daniel Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Immaculata).

Game One

The Blue Jays grabbed the early lead with a run in the top of the second inning and broke the game open with consecutive four-run frames in the middle innings en route to the 13-7 victory.

Ben Watson delivered the big blow for ETown in a four-run fourth inning with a two out, two-run triple into the right centerfield gap to stretch the lead to 5-0 at the time. The Blue Jays tacked on four more runs in the fifth to take a 9-0 lead.

Sophomore right-hander Hunter Ralston (Duryea, Pa./Pittston Area) took the loss for the Royals after allowing five runs (one earned) on five hits to go along with two walks and three strikeouts in 3 2/3 IP. Tyler Dunbar gave up two runs on five hits in six innings of work and registered the win for the Blue Jays.

The Royals got a pair back in the sixth inning with an RBI triple from sophomore Justin Pinckert (Somerville, N.J./Immaculata) and an RBI single from junior Jake Lisicky (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall). Junior Tyler Kirsten (Wallenpaupack, Pa./Wallenpaupack Area) plated a pair with a two-run double in the seventh to cut the lead to 11-4 at the time and fellow junior Dan Crossan (Media, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) delivered an RBI double as part of a three-run eighth inning.

Kirsten (2-5, 3B, 2 RBI, R) and Lisicky (2-4, 2B, RBI, R) both recorded multi-hit games for the Royals and senior lefty Alex DeRosa (Hillsdale, N.J./Pascack Valley) tossed a scoreless inning of relief with a pair of strikeouts.

Game Two

Johnson scattered three hits while walking one and fanning six in his seven shutout innings to lead the Royals to the 4-0 win in game two. Junior southpaw Ryan Heiser (New Milford, N.J./Saint Joseph Regional) and freshman right-hander George Sengos (Washington Twp., N.J./Westwood Regional) each fired a scoreless inning in relief of Johnson to preserve the shutout.

Holding a 3-0 lead at the time, Heiser got Tyler McGonigle looking at strike three with two men on and two outs in the top of the eighth.

Scranton took an early lead with two runs in the first inning as freshman Corey Zientek (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) and senior Connor Harding (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) started the inning with consecutive singles before Zientek scampered home on a wild pitch and Harding scored on Pinckert's RBI single.

Nicholas Ortega was dealt the loss for ETown after allowing the two runs on four hits to go along with a walk and three strikeouts in four innings of work.

In the home half of the sixth inning, Kirsten reached with a fielder's choice, advanced to third on Pinckert's double and scored on a wild pitch to give the hosts a 3-0 advantage. Head coach Mike Bartoletti's squad added an insurance run in the eighth when Pinckert drew a two-out walk and came around to score on Crossan's RBI double.

Crossan (2-4, 2B, RBI) and Pinckert (2-3, RBI, R) both had a pair of hits to lead the Royals offensively in the nightcap, while Harding added a hit, two walks, a run scored and a stolen base.

--ROYALS--