SCRANTON, Pa. - Second-seeded Catholic dropped Friday night's Landmark Conference Tournament opening matchup versus third-seeded Scranton by a final score of 16-3. Catholic will play top-seeded Elizabethtown tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. with the loser being eliminated from the tournament. 

Mitchel Johnson hit a three-run shot in the eighth inning to spoil an otherwise stellar outing from Scranton starting pitcher Dan Johnson. Ben Nardi and Joe Marini each had a pair of hits for the Cardinals on Friday night. 

Scranton jumped ahead early, putting three runs on Tucker Alch in the first inning before Alch settled down with a pair of scoreless frames. The Royals pushed the lead to five in the fourth as Catholic made three errors in the inning to allow the Scranton runs to score. 

Alch was stellar in the fifth and sixth innings before allowing two more runs in the seventh as the Royals built up a 7-0 lead over the Cardinals. Alch's final line was 6.2 innings pitched, seven hits, four earned runs, and six strikeouts. 

Scranton scored three more in the eighth to go ahead 10-0 before Johnson put the Cardinals on the board in the bottom of the eighth. Marini and Nardi hit back-to-back singles before Johnson blasted one over the wall in center to cut the lead back to seven and get Catholic on the board. 

The Royals scored sixth in the ninth to blow the game further open. 

First pitch for tomorrow morning's matchup between the tournament's top two seeds is set for 11 a.m.