SCRANTON, Pa. – The University of Scranton baseball team (26-16) dropped a pair of gut-wrenching contests to the Susquehanna River Hawks (26-18) in the Landmark Conference Championship on Sunday at Volpe Field in Scranton.

With the two victories on the day, Susquehanna has earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the field set to be announced in an NCAA.com live selection show on Monday afternoon at 12 p.m.

The Royals will await to see whether or not they have earned an at-large bid in the field of 60.

Susquehanna 8, Scranton 6 (F/10)

Susquehanna scored a pair of runs on sacrifice flies in the top of the 10^th and forced Sunday's second game with an 8-6 victory.

Graduate student left-hander Ryan Heiser (New Milford, N.J./Saint Joseph Regional) was dealt the loss for the Royals after allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits in an inning of work.

Vincent Mariella walked one and tossed two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win for the River Hawks.

Scranton had tied the game with a run in the bottom of the ninth as graduate student Dan Crossan (Media, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) led off with a single, pinch-runner and freshman Conor Campbell (Wilmington, Del./Salesianum) advanced to second on a sac bunt and came around to score on an error charged to Mariella.

The River Hawks struck first and scored two in the top of the first, but Scranton began to battle back with a run in the third that cut the lead to 2-1.

In the home half of the fourth, a walk and a single put runners at the corners with one away and senior Nick Reposa (Factoryville, Pa./Tunkhannock) tied the game with an RBI double. From there, a hit by pitch with the bases loaded and a sac fly from Crossan extended the lead to 4-2.

However, Susquehanna immediately responded with three runs in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead and tacked on one more in the sixth.

Senior right-hander Hunter Ralston (Duryea, Pa./Pittston Area) allowed five runs (three earned) on eight hits while fanning three over 4 1/3 IP in a no-decision.

Crossan plated junior Corey Zientek (Sugarloaf, Pa./Hazleton Area) with a sac fly in the sixth inning that brought the Royals within a run at 6-5.

Reposa (2-6, 2B, RBI, R) and Zientek (3-5, SB, 2 R) both tallied multi-hit games for Scranton, while junior lefty Mike Fox (Westfield, N.J./Union Catholic) fired 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.

Susquehanna 6, Scranton 5

Michael Mancuso's walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth lifted the River Hawks to a 6-5 victory in the second game of the day.

The River Hawks started the inning with consecutive singles, which set the stage for the walk-off.

Heiser was dealt the loss for Scranton in relief after allowing a run on three hits to go along with two walks and two strikeouts in an inning plus of work.

Aidan Martin scattered two hits while walking one and fanning two in 2.0 IP to record the win for Susquehanna.

The game was deadlocked at 1-1 until the top of the seventh when Scranton scored four runs to take a 5-1 lead. Two hit batsmen and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out before Zientek knocked in a run with an RBI fielder's choice, Crossan delivered a run with a sac fly and senior Braden Breithaupt (Canadensis, Pa./Stroudsburg) plated a pair with a two-run double.

Susquehanna immediately responded with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at five apiece as they took advantage of two Royals' errors in the inning and Dylan Heyduck reached on a fielder's choice that scored the tying run.

Junior righty Thomas Plunkett (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) gave up one run on three hits to go along with four walks and one in strikeout over three plus innings in a no-decision.

Breithaupt (2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Querey (2-3, R) and Zientek (2-5, 2 SB, RBI, R) all tallied multi-hit games for Scranton.

--ROYALS--