March 29, 2009
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Sunday's doubleheader certainly did not go the way the Leopards had hoped. The start of the first game was pushed back to 1 p.m. due to inclement weather and by the end of the long afternoon, Lafayette had dropped both games as Navy came out on top of 2-1 and 13-4 decisions to take three of four games in the series.
Lafayette (9-14, 1-3) dropped another one-run game to open the day, its third one-run loss in the last six games. Both teams were pitching shutouts until the seventh inning when the Leopards and Midshipmen both scored one run, forcing extra innings, where Navy (9-14, 3-1) scraped together a run in the bottom of the eighth to win the game.
Leopard starter Jeremy Atkins scattered just three hits in 6.1 innings of work and gave up just one run. A.J. Pisarri knocked in Lafayette's only hit while Jeff Butler was the lone player with a multi-hit game (2-for-4).
Lafayette broke the scoreless in the seventh inning. Justin Shepherd led off with a single and Bobby Fargnoli came in to pinch run. Brad Weiss sacrificed Fargnoli to second and he came around to score two batters later when Pisarri knocked a single to right field.
Unfortunately, the Midshipmen responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Kendall Bolt hit a one-out triple to left field and Michael Speciale sent him home with a RBI double.
Lafayette put one runner on base in the eighth inning--a Chris Luick single--but failed to get him home.
Navy came through with the game-winning hit in the eighth after reliever Ian Dickson gave up a walk to Alex Azor and hit Jeff Bland to put two runners on base with one out. Mike Guadagnini came through with a single to center field to score Azor and give the Mids the 2-1 victory.
The series finale saw the teams combine for 17 runs but it was Navy that scored 13 of those to take the 13-4 decision. The Midshipmen tagged starter Ryan Hanna for eight runs in two innings and scored five more runs off of the Lafayette bullpen.
The game started on a positive note for the Leopards, as they pushed three runs across the plate in the top of the first inning. Rob Froio hit a leadoff single to left field and came around to score on Butler's double to left field. Daniel Bierce followed that with a triple to score Butler and Luick's sacrifice fly scored Bierce for the quick, 3-0 Lafayette lead.
However, the Midshipmen countered with four runs of their own in the bottom of that inning on five hits, three of which went for extra bases.
Navy put a five-spot up in the third inning which increased the lead to 9-3. The big blow came off the bat of Nick Driscoll, whose three-run homer to left center off of Hanna made it 8-3. Joe Kinney called on freshman reliever John Gentile who gave up the final run of the inning.
The Midshipmen tacked on another run in the fourth on a Steve Soares solo shot to left field that upped the lead to 10-3.
Tyler Chromey relieved Gentile in the fifth and gave up three more runs on a Bolt RBI single and a Speciale double that scored two runs to make the score 13-3.
Lafayette added a run in the ninth on John Naso's two-out, RBI double down the left field line that scored Fargnoli, but Navy retired the final batter to secure the 13-4 run.
The Leopards are back on the road Wednesday with a 3 p.m. game at NJIT.
