WAYNE, N.J. – A three-run seventh proved to be the difference in the game as The University of Scranton baseball team (17-12) rallied past William Paterson (19-10) in a 12-10 victory over the Pioneers on Tuesday afternoon at Jeff Albies Field in Wayne.

The Royals broke a 9-9 deadlock with three in the seventh as junior Corey Zientek (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) led off with a triple and later scored on an error charged to Pioneers' SS Tyler Ruban. Scranton then added two more runs in the frame as a double and a single following the error loaded the bases with nobody out. From there, junior Jack Heineman (Abington, Pa./LaSalle College) knocked in a run with a sac fly and freshman Conor Campbell (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) added one with a sac bunt back to the mound which allowed a run to score from third.

Junior right-hander Ryan Walsh (Rockville Centre, N.Y./Chaminade) got the win for the Royals as he allowed a run on five hits and fanned three over 1 2/3 IP of relief. Graduate student lefty Ryan Heiser (New Milford, N.J./Saint Joseph Regional) recorded the final four outs to notch his second save of the year and three of the four outs came via strikeout.

Working with a 12-9 lead in the seventh, junior lefty Mike Fox (Westfield, N.J./Union Catholic) escaped a bases loaded nobody out jam with back-to-back strikeouts and a flyout off the bat of Jake Fallers to end the inning. The Pioneers were able to get a run back in the eighth to cut the lead to 12-10, but Heiser limited any further damage as he got Jake Lutz looking at strike three.

Matt Lawler took the loss for William Paterson as he allowed three runs (one earned) on three hits in an inning of work.

Scranton opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first as senior Braden Breithaupt (Canadensis, Pa./Stroudsburg) reached on a fielder's choice which plated Zientek. However, the hosts answered with three runs apiece in the first two innings to take an early 6-1 lead behind two-run homers from Steve Yelin and Dan Carter.

The two teams traded solo runs in the third and the Royals battled back with five runs in the fourth to tie things at seven apiece. A pair of bases-loaded walks brought home two runs in the inning, while sophomore Jake Elston (New Milford, Conn./Canterbury School) drove in a run with an RBI single, Heineman added a sac fly and graduate student Jake Lisicky (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall) reached on a fielder's choice to score a run.

In the top of the fifth, Elston walked, stole second and third and scored on Lisicky's RBI groundout to regain the lead for the Royals and junior John Zarnowski (East Brunswick, N.J./St. Joseph's) followed with an RBI single that made it a 9-7 game for the time being. Yelin tied the game at nine apiece in the home half of the inning with his second home run of the day.

Breithaupt (2-5, 2B, 3 RBI) and Zarnowski (2-2, 2 RBI) both tallied multi-hit games for the Royals, while Elston stole three bases and added two runs and Zientek drew two walks, stole a base and scored four runs.

The Royals hit the road to battle Moravian in the first two games of a weekend series on Saturday afternoon with first pitch of game one slated for 12 p.m.

--ROYALS--