RICHMOND, Va. – Freshman Justin Johnson had a three-hit afternoon in the Lafayette baseball team's 7-3 loss on Sunday in the series finale against VCU at The Diamond.
 
VCU (11-3) put together a four-run first inning to jump out to an early lead and never looked back behind a joint effort on the mound, allowing just five Lafayette (3-9) hits.
 
The Leopards began to chip away in the second inning when senior Spencer Rouse drew a leadoff walk and classmate Dan Leckie drove him home with a double.
 
Junior starting pitcher Brett Kreyer worked a scoreless second before Lafayette was able to tack on one more run in the third as sophomore Ethan Stern was hit by a pitch to start the inning and came around to score on a fielder's choice off the bat of Rouse to make it a 4-2 game.
 
 The Rams answered right back with two more in the home half of the third and another in the fourth before Johnson singled and later scored in the seventh.
 
Johnson was 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored while senior Andrew Marra worked a perfect seventh inning and sophomore Tyler Faccenda only allowed one base runner which was erased via a double play in the eighth out of the Leopards' bullpen.
 
Lafayette will finally be considered the home team on Tuesday when they meet Penn at Diamond Nation in Flemington, New Jersey with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
 
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