Feb. 28, 2010

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Va. - With the game tied at six heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Leopards were hoping for extra innings against an undefeated VMI squad, but the Keydets pushed across a run to steal the 7-6 win.

The Leopards (0-3) held a 6-5 lead until the bottom of the seventh when VMI (6-0) tied it at six-all and went on to score the game winner two innings later.

Lafayette did collect 13 hits on the afternoon with five players notching multiple hits. Senior captain A.J. Pisarri led the team at the plate with a 3-for-4 day while classmate Matt Hall and sophomore Brian Davila drove in two runs apiece.

Starter Jeremy Atkins went 4.1 innings and gave up five runs on 10 hits. Three Lafayette relievers combined to pitch the final 4.1 innings and gave up just two earned runs on four hits.

Leadoff hitter Rob Froio set the pace early with a single through the right side to open the game. Davila followed with another single and Froio was able to score when Pisarri ground into a double play.

The Leopards put two more runs on the board the next inning on a Davila double.

VMI countered with four runs in the bottom of that inning. As they did in the series-opening doubleheader on Saturday, home runs again proved costly for Lafayette when George Piccirilli hit a three-run homer to make it 4-3 VMI.

That lead did not last long as the Leopards added a solo run in the third on Adam McMahon's double down the left field line.

The Keydets went ahead in the bottom of the inning on a RBI single but left two runners on, preventing any further damage.

Lafayette made it four straight scoring innings with two more runs in the fourth. Hall came through with a two-RBI single up the middle for a 6-5 Leopard lead.

That remained the score for the next three innings as the Lafayette relievers kept VMI off the scoreboard until the bottom of the seventh.

Tanner Biagini knocked a solo shot, they Keydets' 10th homer of the series, to left center and Lafayette failed score in the eighth and ninth innings.

Sophomore reliever Ian Dickson entered the game in the eighth inning and came back out for the bottom of the ninth. He gave up a single and an intentional walk, but with two outs and two men on, Graham Sullivan singled to right field to plate the game-winning run.

Lafayette returns to action on Wednesday with a 3 p.m. game at La Salle.