April 18, 2010
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
WORCESTER, Mass. - Sunday ended on a high note for the Lafayette baseball team as a solid pitching performance by starter Corey Shea led the Leopards to a 7-0 victory to help put a 13-4, game one loss behind them.
Shea tossed eight shutout innings, scattering just seven hits while striking out nine batters. Reliever Jeff Snell pitched a scoreless ninth to clinch the win, which was needed after Lafayette (7-23, 3-7) fell to Holy Cross (15-16, 5-5) by a 13-4 score in the series opener.
Matt Fenster finished the day 4-for-8 with a double and one RBI. Rookie Scott Kelleher added four hits and scored two runs.
The Leopards struck early in game two, pouncing on Holy Cross Starter Matt Croglio for four runs in the second inning. Sophomore Bobby Fargnoli had the big hit in the inning as he came through with a one-out, bases-loaded double to score three runs and Rob Froio sent home the fourth run with a RBI single through the left side.
Shea gave up only two hits over the first three innings and Lafayette tacked on two runs in the fourth on a Froio groundout that scored Fargnoli and a Justin Shepherd single to right field that allowed Brian Davila to score for a 6-0 Leopard lead.
Shea retired the Crusaders in order in the fourth, gave up a solo hit in the fifth and put only two more Holy Cross runners on base in his final three innings of work.
Davila added a RBI hit in the eighth that allowed Pisarri to score after he reached on an error by Holy Cross second baseman John Sills to open the inning.
Snell relieved Shea in the ninth and worked around a one out single and a hit batter by getting the final two batters to strike out swinging to end the game.
The Leopards fell behind early in game one and never recovered. Starter Zach Fritz surrendered four runs on three hits in the first inning and lasted 4.1 innings, giving up eight runs on eight hits.
In that first inning, the first three batters reached base and leadoff hitter Jack Laurendeau scored the game's first run on a Sills single. Steve Tkowski had a one-out RBI double and a bases-loaded walk to Stephen Wadsworth accounted for the third run. The Crusaders scored their fourth on Eric Oxford's sac fly.
Lafayette cut that lead in half the very next inning thanks to a Holy Cross error that allowed Fenster to score and A.J. Pisarri's RBI single through the right side.
Holy Cross tacked on a run in the second but the Leopards put two more runs on the board in the third. Another Holy Cross error sent Froio home to make it 5-3 and Fenster's groundout scored Shepherd for a 5-4 ballgame.
Unfortunately, that marked the end of the scoring for Lafayette as the Crusaders added a run in the third, two in the fifth and three more in the sixth. The third and fifth-inning runs were all charged to Fritz, and reliever Jeremy Atkins gave up the final three runs when he entered the game with one out in the fifth.
The series, which was delayed a day by rain, concludes tomorrow with another doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
