GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- King College's Joe Kitt pitched eight strong innings as the Tornado defeated host Tusculum College 5-2 Wednesday afternoon at Pioneer Park in non-conference baseball action. King improves to 6-2, while the Pioneers (10-7) have their four-game winning streak snapped.

Kitt scattered 10 hits over hits eight innings of work, limiting Tusculum to two runs, walked one and struck out four.

Joe Craven went 3-for-4 at the plate for King, while Justin Reising and Ryan Kennedy finished with two hits each.

Tusculum had three players with multi-hit performances, including Ricky Feliz, Carlos Rivera and Christian Rosa.

King plated three runs in the first inning as Craven led off the game with a single and moved to third on Chris Lester's double. Mike Torrence drove in the first run of the game with his fly out to bring home Craven. Lester accounted for the second score of the day thanks to Drew Trujillo. Reising tripled home Trujillo to make the score 3-0.

Tusculum trimmed the deficit to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the sixth inning. Rivera led off with a single and scored on Rosa's third double of the season. Rosa moved to third on Mark Deans' bunt single and later scored on Paul Finger's sacrifice fly as Tusculum trailed by one.

King answered with two critical insurance runs in the eighth inning as the Tornado mustered three straight two-out hits, including Brett Cant's two-run single to take a 5-2 advantage.

TC's Dustin Morrow drew a lead-off walk in the bottom of the ninth, but Brandon Wallace relieved Kitt and struck out the side to record a save and seal the win.

Tusculum returns to action Saturday to open a three-game South Atlantic Conference weekend series, beginning with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Pioneer Park.