Feb. 27, 2009
Box Score
HARRISONBURG, Va. - It took 12 innings, but the Lafayette baseball team came out on the winning end of a four-hour marathon to earn a hard-fought, 9-8 victory over James Madison. Shortstop Daniel Bierce continued his torrid hitting pace, leading both teams with four hits, bringing his season hit total to 11 in four games.
The Leopards (3-1) pushed across the eventual game-winning run in the 12th inning when Rob Froio, who led off with a walk, came around to score on a wild pitch with two outs. Reliever Corey Shea, who pitched the final three innings, retired the Dukes (3-4) in order, including a game-winning strike out, to earn his first victory of the season. He gave up only one hit while striking out four batters.
Lafayette out-hit James Madison, the defending Colonial Athletic Conference champion, 18-8. The Dukes committed four errors in the game, leading to four unearned runs. Bierce added a game-high three RBI to go along with his four hits and two runs scored.
The game was a pitchers' duel for the first five innings as the Leopards' starter, Zach Fritz, gave up only five hits in his six innings of work.
The Leopards broke the scoreless tie in the sixth inning with three runs. A.J. Pisarri opened the inning with a single to right center and stole second with one out. An error on a ball hit by Jeff Butler moved Pisarri to third and Bierce knocked a double down the right field line to score Pisarri.
Lafayette's second and third runs of the inning came with back-to-back two-out hits. Matt Hall bunt singled to score Bierce, and Brad Weiss singled up the middle to plate Ian McCutcheon, who had reached on a fielder's choice.
The Dukes countered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Fritz gave up a single and a walk, and Trevor Knight scored on a wild pitch with two outs. With two runners still on base, Brett Garner followed with a game-tying, two-run homer down the leftfield line.
The Leopards' offense was on a roll, however, and came through with another four runs in the top half of the seventh. Pisarri reached on an error, the Dukes' second of the game, and Froio singled to shortstop. He promptly stole second to put runners on second and third for Butler and the senior captain drove Pisarri home with a single up the middle.
Bierce came through with his third hit of the game, a triple to left center, which sent Butler and Froio home. Another James Madison fielding error allowed Bierce to score to make it 7-4.
Freshman Ethan Perro came on in relief of Fritz in the bottom of the seventh and the Dukes tacked on a two more runs. A David Herbek RBI double down the leftfield line cut the Leopards' lead to three (7-4) and a sac fly off the bat of Knight made it a 7-5 game.
Lafayette got back one of those runs in the top of the eighth when Alex Bechta was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Senior Brian Mostek came on to pitch the ninth but walked Alex Foltz and Knight with two outs and then surrendered a three-run blast to Matt Townsend that knotted the game at eight and sent the game into extra innings before the Leopards finally won it in the 12th.
Lafayette and James Madison play the second of their three-game series tomorrow at 1 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday with another 1 p.m. contest.
Postgame Notes:
- The win was the 190th of head coach Joe Kinney's career. All of those victories have come at Lafayette.
- Lafayette and James Madison had only met once before in the teams' histories--an 18-4 Lafayette loss on March 17, 1987.
- The last time Lafayette opened a season 3-1 was in 2005.
- James Madison has now lost four straight games
