MERION STATION, Pa.  – The Lafayette baseball team pieced together a 3-1 victory over St. Joseph's Tuesday afternoon in the quarterfinal of the Liberty Bell Classic at Smithson Field.
 
Freshman Justin Johnson led-off the  Lafayette (7-15) sixth with a double to right center and stole third base before an errant throw allowed him to cross the plate for the first run of the afternoon. The Hawks (10-11) threatened in the bottom half as a leadoff walk worked his way to third base, but senior David Giusti stranded him there to keep the Leopards in front, 1-0.
 
Giusti was credited with the win to move to 2-0 on the season after tossing two scoreless with two strikeouts.
 
A similar seventh inning followed as senior Spencer Rouse reached on a base hit to open the top half and sophomore Bill Russo legged out a bunt along the first base line. Pinch hitter junior Brandon Posivak sacrificed them over with a bunt and another pinch hitter, sophomore Michael Landry did the job with a groundout to score Rouse.
 
Rouse was 2-for-4 to lead the Lafayette offense with an RBI double and scoring a run.
 
St. Joseph's was able to push one across in the home half of the seventh when a leadoff triple came around to score, but strong defensive plays by Stern and Rouse limited the damage and kept Lafayette ahead, 2-1.
 
Lafayette answered back when sophomore Ethan Stern was hit by his conference-leading ninth pitch of the season and a few batters later, Rouse delivered a double down the right field line to get the lead back to two.
 
Freshman Kyle Subers started the eighth on the hill and after a leadoff walk, struck out the side to keep Lafayette in front and classmate Frank Craska came on to shut things down in the ninth for his second save.
 
Senior Jon Faraci made his first start of the season for the Leoaprds and went a scheduled two innings with two strikeouts, allowing no hits before sophomore Michael Dunn came in on relief to throw another pair of scoreless innings with a strikeout.
 
Senior Andrew Marra followed Giusti allowing just the single run and freshman Kyle Subers worked the clean eighth.
 
Lafayette advances to the semifinal where they will take on the winner of Penn and Villanova on April 2 on the road.
 
The Leopards will finally hold their home opener, hosting Navy at Kamine Stadium in Patriot League action for a three-game set started off by a double header on Saturday at noon.

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