The Misericordia University baseball team defeated King's in the opening round of the MAC Freedom championships, 6-0, on a wet evening at Owls Field.
Tim Burek went 7.0 innings, had a career-high 10 strikeouts and allowed just three hits to earn the win.
Tyler Holzapfel went 3-4 with an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored.
Steve Weisensee went 2-3 with two RBI and
Jeremy DeCotiis went 2-3 with two runs scored and a stolen base.
Parker Abate went 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Burek came out dealing, striking out two of the first three batters looking and getting the other to ground out to second.
Conor Smith led off the bottom of the first with a walk. Two batters later, Holzapfel smacked a single to right-center and Smith went first to third. The catcher tried to catch Holzapfel stealing second so Smith darted home from third to give MU a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth, Holzapfel singled down the right field line and Weisensee bunted him over on a pitch that nearly hit his head. Abate singled to center to score Holzapfel and make it 2-0 MU.
Billy Kerwien led off the bottom of the fifth and was hit by a pitch. The next batter popped up to second before DeCotiis singled to left. With runners at first and second with two outs, Holzapfel singled to right to score Kerwien. Weisensee followed with a single up the middle to plate DeCotiis and give MU a 4-0 lead.
The bottom of the sixth started the same as the last inning as Abate was hit by a pitch.
Brett Davis bunted him over and he got to third on a wild pitch. A perfectly executed squeeze by Kerwien allowed Abate to score easily and push the lead to five.
In the seventh, DeCotiis drew a leadoff walk and stole second. Weisensee smacked a two-out single through the left side to make it 6-0.
Garrett Pelko had a 1-2-3 eighth and
Elliot Forde had a 1-2-3 ninth to clinch the game for the Cougars.
Misericordia had the leadoff batter reach safely in six of the eight innings. Five of the innings the batter reached safely via a walk or got hit by a pitch.
As of right now, Misericordia is scheduled to play DeSales tomorrow at 3:00.
