March 25, 2009

Box Score

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The Lafayette baseball squad dropped another close game, this time a 5-3 loss at Wagner on Wednesday afternoon. The Leopards, coming off a tough, 3-2 loss at St. Joseph's on Tuesday, managed just six hits against the Seahawks.

Junior Brad Weiss and sophomore Adam McMahon both finished with two hits apiece for Lafayette (8-11). The first four batters in the lineup, including McMahon, combined for four of the Leopards' six hits.

Youth was the name of the game on the mound for the Leopards, who used three rookie pitchers against the Seahawks (7-6). Ethan Perro went five innings and gave up three runs on four hits. Jack Rems gave up two runs in his only inning of relief and Jeff Snell tossed one inning of shutout ball in the eighth.

Lafayette got the scoring started in the first inning. Jeff Butler, who knocked a one-out triple to right center, scored the game's first run on Daniel Bierce's sac fly. The Leopards proceeded to load the bases but did not get another run across, keeping it a 1-0 game.

Perro ran into trouble in the second inning when he gave up a two-out, three-run home run to Brian Martutartus to hand Wagner the 3-1 lead.

The Leopards did not let that homer deter them, however. They came right back to tie the game at three on a RBI single from Weiss and a sac fly off the bat of Justin Shepherd.

The game remained deadlocked at three until the sixth inning, when the Seahawks pushed across two runs against Rems. He gave up a leadoff single to Joe Jamison and a two-out Seth Higgins double drove in two runners to give Wagner the 5-3 advantage.

Lafayette never threatened to take that lead away from the Seahawks as the team managed just one hit in the final three innings of play.

The Leopards open Patriot League play this weekend at Navy with doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Both days are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.