April 19, 2009
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - Entering Sunday in a three-way tie for first place in the Patriot League standings, the Lafayette baseball squad was in prime position to hold on to that spot. However, the Leopards dropped their final two games against Holy Cross on Sunday afternoon, leaving the regular season title an open race with just one conference weekend remaining.
Lafayette (19-19, 8-8) dropped 4-1 and 7-4 decisions to the Crusaders (17-22, 8-6), a stark contrast to the 20 combined runs the Leopards scored just one day earlier. Daniel Bierce had four hits on the afternoon (4-for-7) and scored two runs in the second contest.
Jeremy Atkins went the distance in the first game and gave up just three earned runs but the offense struggled, recording only five hits off Crusaders starter Matt Shapiro.
Lafayette opened its half of the first inning with a run when Bierce doubled to right center to send home leadoff hitter Rob Froio, who had reached on a single to left field.
Holy Cross countered with two runs in the top of the second. Atkins surrendered a leadoff double and a John Sills single led to the tying run. Atkins gave up a walk sandwiched by two hits, and catcher A.J. Miller then overthrew third base on attempted steal, sending home the second run of the inning.
The score remained 2-1 until the fifth inning. Brendan McCrea drew a one-out walk and Matt Perry's double to left field sent McCrea home to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
The Crusaders tacked on another solo run in the sixth inning on a John Sills homer to left field, his second in three games.
Lafayette put a runner on base in the seventh-- Justin Shepherd --but a double play erased the runner and ended the game.
While the Leopards more than doubled their hits in the second game with 11, they still struggled to get the big hit and fell 7-4. Lafayette went to its bullpen five times as starter Ryan Hanna lasted just four innings and gave up four runs.
Holy Cross managed to get the game's first run in the second inning on Jack Laurendeau's two-out single through the right side.
Hanna gave up two more runs in the third when Jake Oxford belted a two-out homer to right field to give his squad the 3-0 lead.
That lead increased to 4-0 the very next inning when Steve Tkowski's ground ball found a hole in the left side of the infield and drove home Sills, who had hit a one-out double to left field.
Lafayette cut that lead in half in the bottom of that inning. Bierce and Jeff Butler hit back-to-back singles and a throwing error allowed Bierce to score. Shepherd's ground out led to the second run and put the Leopards right back in the game.
It became a tie ballgame in the sixth inning when Lafayette put two more runs on the scoreboard. Bierce and Butler again put together back-to-back hits and Shepherd again came through with a RBI groundout to bring the team within one (4-3). Pinch hitter Matt Fenster singled through the right side and sent home the tying run.
Rookie reliever Ethan Perro, who had entered the game in fifth, gave up two runs in the seventh. He put runners on second and third with one man out. He got Sills to strike out swinging for the second out, but Tkowski knocked a two-RBI single to center field to hand a two-run lead (6-4) back to the Crusaders.
Holy Cross added an insurance run in the ninth due to Lafayette error--the team's fourth miscue in the game--and Lafayette was retired in order in its half of the ninth.
The Leopards are back in action on Tuesday when they host East Stroudsburg at 4 p.m.
