April 8, 2000
Box Score
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lafayette claimed the first game of a Patriot League doubleheader vs.Lehigh on Saturday with a 16-15 victory in eight innings.
Lafayette jumped on to the board in the first inning with four runs. Vince D'Angelis (Montvale, NJ/St. Joseph Regional) led off the game with a double. Tye Gonser (The Dalles, Ore./The Dalles) promptly singled him home for the Leopards first run of the game. The next batter up, Bob Osipower (Quakertown, Pa./Bethlehem catholic) homered to right center to put Lafayette up 3-0. The Leopards' final run of the inning came in the person of Mike Palos (Bethlehem, Pa./Bethlehem Catholic) who scored on an error.
Lehigh answered with one in thehome half of the first inning, when Patrick Hollander singled home Justin Pagan to make it 4-1. Lafayette got two more runs in the second on an RBI-triple from D'Angelis and an RBI-single from Gonser.
The Mountain Hawks would answer with three of their own. Chip McAteer, who reached on a triple, scored on an error by the shortstop. Lehigh's final two runs of the inning came on another triple, this time from Jeffrey Peitrak.
In the top of the third, the Leopards scored two more runs when junior Ian Burley homered to right center with Palos aboard at first.
After a rare scoreless inning in the fourth, both teams' offenses got going again. In the fifth inning, the Leopards' scored three runs on just one hit thanks in large part to two a pair of intentional walks, a hit batsman, an error and a wild pitch. Sophomore JonKline (Hingham, Mass./Thayer Academy) delivered that lone hit with a two-run single. The other Lafayette run came home on a wild pitch, giving Lafayette an 11-4 lead at the end of four and one half innings.
Lehigh battled back with six runs on five hits in the bottom of the fifth. The biggest hits of the innings came on a three-run triple from McAteer, his second triple of the game. The other three runs came on an RBI-single from Rob Moran and a fielder's choice from McAteer. The six-run inning cut the lead to 11-10.
The Leopards and Mountainhawks scored three runs apiece in the sixth. Two of Lafayette's runs were plated by a Jason Carlough (Clinton, Conn./Morgan School) home run to right field. Gonser singled home Jason Moll (Montville, N.J./Newark Academy) who had earlier reach on a single. The Leopards took a 14-10 lead.
The four-run margin was again sliced to one in the home half of the inning. RBI-singles from Moran and Brad Schulman and a fielder's choice from McAteer made the score 14-13.
After Lafayette went three up and three down in the seventh, Lehigh tied the game. Anthony Piccola led off with a triple and was doubled home by the next batter, Pietrak. The Leopards, however, held on to keep the game tied at 14-14.
In the first extra inning, Osipower brought home Lafayette's first run with a sac fly to left that plated D'Angelis. Lafayette scored its second and final run of the inning when freshman Brad Drake (East Stroudsburg, Pa./East Stroudsburg) singled home Gonser for the game-winner.
Lehigh added one run in the bottom of the inning, but fell short, losing 16-15.
Palos (2-2) got the win for Lafayette, while Brian Andalman took the loss.
