SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton baseball team (9-6, 2-1 Landmark) scored a season-high 20 runs including nine in the fifth and senior RHP Daniel Johnson (Whitehouse Station, N.J./Immaculata) tossed seven shutout inning as the Royals rolled to a dominant 20-0 victory over the Drew University Rangers (10-5, 1-3 Landmark) in the opener of a weekend series on Friday evening at Volpe Field in Scranton.

The 20 runs are the most the Royals have scored since a 22-4 victory at Wilkes on Apr. 13, 2022.

For Johnson, the Whitehouse Station, N.J., native scattered just four hits to go along with two walks and eight strikeouts over his seven scoreless innings. He has not allowed a run over his 14.0 IP (two starts).

Drew had a runner on base in both the second and third innings of a scoreless game, but Johnson got a double play in consecutive frames to keep things deadlocked at zero for the time being.

Scranton got on the board with five runs in the home half of the third as junior TJ Pleban (Hazleton, Pa./Hazleton Area) reached on an error charged to Rangers CF Ryan Jones to start the inning and later scored on an RBI single from senior Nick Reposa (Factoryville, Pa./Tunkhannock). Graduate student Jake Lisicky (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) followed with an RBI single of his own, while junior Pat Coyne (Randolph, N.J./Morristown-Beard) added an RBI triple and junior Jack Heineman (Abington, Pa./LaSalle College) and senior Braden Breithaupt (Canadensis, Pa./Stroudsburg) came through with back-to-back RBI doubles for a 5-0 lead.

Coyne, Reposa and Lisicky all drove in runs in the fourth inning as the Royals extended the lead to 8-0 before using the afore-mentioned nine-run fifth to break the game open. Three straight hits batsmen opened the home half of the fifth for Scranton and a pair of bases-loaded walks set the stage for a big inning as Heineman delivered an RBI single and graduate student Dan Crossan (Media, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) cleared the bases with a grand slam that made it a 17-0 game.

Raiden Yost was dealt the loss for Drew as he allowed eight runs (three earned) on nine hits to go along with two walks and two strikeouts in four innings of work.

Coyne (2-3, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R), Heineman (3-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R), Reposa (2-2, 3 RBI, 2 R) and junior Joe Lisicky (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) who had two hits with a run scored all registered multi-hit games for the hosts.

In relief of Johnson, sophomore right-hander Dominic Chieffalo (Norristown, Pa./Malvern Prep) and freshman righty Jackson Bullaro (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) both fired scoreless innings.

The two teams will do battle in a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Volpe Field with first pitch of game one slated for 12 p.m.

--ROYALS--