ARTILLERY PARK – Alec Lurato hit an RBI pinch-hit single to left in the top of the 10^th inning and Jake Kurtz got Ryan Herbst (East Islip, NY/St. John the Baptist) to ground into a game-ending double play as the Cougars held on for the 8-7 win.
 
The loss sends the Colonels to 16-15 overall and 10-8 in the Freedom Conference while Misericordia improves to 22-6 and 11-3 in the Freedom.
 
Jarret Clymer (Bethlehem, PA/Freedom) led off the bottom of the first lacing a double to left center and James Brown (Covington, PA/North Pocono) followed suit with an RBI single up the middle to put the Colonels up 1-0.  DJ Navoczynski tied the game in the top of the 2^nd with a solo blast to left center.  In the bottom half of the 2^nd Clymer ripped his second double of the game scoring Zak Berg (Mountain Top, PA/Crestwood) and Joshua Slocum (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights) to make it a 3-1 Colonels lead.  Brown grounded out to short scoring Bobby Schappell (Pottsville, PA/Pottsville) to extend the Colonels lead to 4-1 after two innings of play.
 
Misericordia got two runs back in the top of the 3^rd off of an error to make it 4-3 and they would go on to take a 5-4 lead after the top of the 5^th.  The Cougars would tack on another run in the 6^th on a Mike Comerford two RBI single through the left side. 
 
Slocum would take over for the Colonels production as he blasted a solo shot over the blue monster in the 6^th and drilled another solo shot to dead centerfield in the 8^th to make it a 7-6 game. 
 
Trailing by one and with just three outs remaining in the game Clymer hit an opposite field solo home run to left to tie the game at 7-7.  With Brown on second and two outs in the inning Matthew Reese (Wellsboro, PA/Wellsboro) line a ball to center that was caught by a diving Navoczynski to end the inning and force extras.
 
Comerford led off the top of the 10^th with a double to left and would score on Lurato's single to left to give the Cougars the 8-7 advantage.  Slocum picked up his third hit of the game in the bottom of the 10^th but the rally was stymied when Kurtz got Herbst to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.
 
Slocum had two RBI's and three runs scored to go along with his three hits.  Clymer finished 3-for-5 with three RBI's and two runs scored and Schappell finished the game with two hits and a run scored.  Jeff Roedell (Perkasie, PA/Pennridge) took the hard luck loss allowing his first earned run of the season on four hits in 4.1 innings of relief.  Roedell struck out five Cougars while walking just one.
 
Wilkes next game will be tomorrow when they travel to Scranton, PA to take on Marywood University in a non-conference 9-inning game.  First pitch is slated for 4:00 p.m.