The Misericordia University baseball team defeated Scranton, 16-9, in eight innings, Wednesday night at Tambur Field.

Dalton Emerich, who worked three innings as the Cougars' starting pitcher, had an impressive day on the mound and at the plate. The sophomore surrendered just one earned run while hitting 4-for-5 with two runs, two extra base hits and a three RBI. Emerich set a new season-high for hits and tied his previous season-best for RBI.

Tyler Holzapfel and Shane Hughes also tallied three RBI for the Cougars. Holzapfel was 2-3 with a single, double and a walk while Hughes went 2-5 with a single and a triple.

Kenny Jarema and Billy Kerwien each added a couple RBI to the Cougars' tally. Jarema reached base four times with a double, two singles and a walk. Seniors Parker Abate and Steve Weisensee both contributed with one RBI.

After Scranton got a run in the first inning, the Cougars answered with three runs in the bottom half. Holzapfel drove home the team's first run with a two-out single up the middle. Kerwien and Emerich continued the squad's two-out rally with back-to-back RBI singles to jump out to an early 3-1 lead.

After Conor Smith reached on an error to open the second inning, Jarema singled to right field in the team's following at bat to bring Smith home, 4-1.

In the third inning, Misericordia put three more runs on the board.  Brady Madden led off the inning with a double to right field while Holzapfel worked a walk in the team's next plate appearance. After a successful double steal, Emerich brought home both runners with a triple to right field, 6-1. Hughes then scored Emerich with a single to take a six run advantage.

Scranton cut its deficit to three runs with a three-run fourth inning. However, the Cougars retaliated with four runs in the bottom of the inning.

Kerwien drove home the first run of the inning with a single to center field. The Cougars then added another run when Holzapfel scored on a fielding error following an Emerich single to take a 9-4 advantage.

Moments later, Hughes brought home two more runs with a triple to left-center field, which gave the Cougars an 11-4 lead.

The Royals combined for three unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull within four runs. However, Holzapfel helped the squad regain momentum with a two-run double to right-center field in the seventh inning, 13-7.

Scranton got back both runs in the top of the eighth, but the Cougars were able to put the Royals away for good with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Jarema brought home the first run with a single while Abate and Weisensee plated the final two runs before the game was called due to darkness.

The Cougars improved to 17-7 overall while the Royals fell to 10-9 on the season. Misericordia will return to conference play and start a three-game set against DeSales University, Thursday in Center Valley, PA.