COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – A six-run seventh for top seeded St. Thomas (30-7) proved costly as the No. 6 seed University of Scranton baseball team (20-10) dropped an 8-4 decision to the Tommies on Friday afternoon in the NCAA Regional opener for both teams.

The Royals will play the loser of Texas-Dallas/Chapman in an elimination game on Saturday at 12 p.m./11 a.m. central, while St. Thomas takes on the loser of York (Pa.)/Pacific following the first game.

This marked the first NCAA Tournament game in program history for the Royals.

In the afore-mentioned six-run seventh inning, Kyle Halverson delivered the big blow for the Tommies with a bases clearing, three-run double that broke a four all tie. Scranton held a 4-2 lead entering the inning.

Freshman right-hander George Sengos (Washington Twp., N.J./Westwood Regional) took the loss for Scranton after allowing four runs (two earned) on one hit in the seventh inning. T.J. Constertina tossed three innings of scoreless relief and registered the victory for St. Thomas.

The Tommies struck first with solo runs in the second and third innings to take a 2-0 lead before the Royals rallied for four runs in the fifth to open up a 4-2 advantage. A walk and a single put two men on to start the Royals' fifth inning before juniors Dan Crossan (Media, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) and Tyler Kirsten (Wallenpaupack, Pa./Wallenpaupack Area) and sophomore Justin Pinckert (Somerville, N.J./Immaculata) all came through with RBI singles.

Sophomore right-hander Daniel Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Immaculata) got the start for Scranton and gave up two runs on three hits while walking six and fanning five over six innings of work. For St. Thomas, Graham Laubscher surrendered four runs (three earned) on eight hits to go along with two walks and eight strikeouts in six innings.

Both teams had their chances throughout the majority of the contest as the Royals stranded nine men and the Tommies left seven on base.

Kirsten, senior Kevin Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Hunterdon Central) and freshman Corey Zientek (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) all had multi-hit games for head coach Mike Bartoletti's squad, while sophomore right-hander Kevin Donovan (Cranford, N.J./Cranford) tossed 1 1/3 perfect innings of relief.

Zientek has recorded three multi-hit contests in his last six games and Kirsten has now hit safely in 20 of his last 22 games.

Stay tuned to athletics.scranton.edu later this afternoon to find out who the Royals will be playing on Saturday.

--ROYALS--