EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette baseball team fought until the final pitch in the Sunday finale with Navy at Kamine Stadium, but the Mids outlasted the Leopards by an 11-9 final.

The Mids jumped out to a 5-0 lead on two two-run innings in the second and third, but the Maroon and White bounced back in their half of the third. Spencer Rouse singled home Trey Durrah for the opening run and back-to-back knocks from Dylan Minghini and Justin Johnson plated the fourth and fifth for Lafayette to knot the game at 5-5.

Navy added two more in the sixth and seventh innings to move its lead back out to five, 10-5. But the Leopards answered once again in the seventh, adding three more to its total on singles from Richard Villa and Bill Russo to make it a two-run game, 10-8.

Each side plated one in the eighth, but both pitchers limited offense in the final frame to close out the 11-9 final. The loss drops the Leopards to 7-18 overall this season and 3-4 in conference action, while Navy improves to 21-9 overall and 9-2 in league play.

Russo led the production with a pair of RBIs on the afternoon, while Johnson, Villa and Rouse all collected three hits in five plate appearances each. Ethan Stearn drew a pair of walks to go along with a hit and a run scored, and Durrah added two hits and two runs with a walk in four trips.

Lafayette starter Brett Kreyer pitched five innings and surrendered just one earned run on five hits, four strikeouts and four walks. Reliever Tyler Faccenda added an inning and a third of solid work, giving up just one hit on six batters faced.

Lafayette heads back to Liberty Bell Classic play in its next contest, traveling to Villanova on Tuesday in the semifinal stage.