LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Lafayette baseball squad scored a dozen two-out runs en route to a 12-4 victory on Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader split with Bucknell at Depew Field.
Going for the season sweep in the second game, the Leopards came up on the short end of a 6-2 contest as the Bison broke open a pitchers duel with six runs in the sixth through eighth innings.
After stranding three runners in the first inning of the afternoon, Lafayette was determined to not suffer a similar fate when they loaded the bases again in the third. Trailing 1-0,
Bill Russo cleared the bases with a three-run triple to right field. Four additional hits followed resulting in four more runs and a 7-1 lead. Senior
Spencer Rouse capped the uprising with a two-run double.
Lafayette starter
JP Woodward settled down after surrendering the first inning run, allowing just a lone single over the next four innings. Junior outfielder
Trey Durrah pushed the lead to double figures in the fifth inning when he unloaded for his fifth home run, and second grand slam, of the season. Staked to a big lead, Woodward cruised to his fourth win of the season and third victory in his last four starts.
Ethan Stern was a tablesetter in the win, reaching base all five plate appearances with three singles and two walks.
Richard Villa,
Dan Leckie and
Dylan Minghini all contributed two of the Leopards 14 hits in the first game.
Sophomore
Michael Dunn was the Game 2 starter for Lafayette and matched Bucknell's Jack Grabek through four hitless innings. Each team managed a lone hit in the fifth, but the Bison were the first to break through in the run column when Tyler Wincig delivered a two-run triple to right field. Wincig would score one batter later on an Alex Baumann sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
The Leopards answered with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, when Durrah stroked a single to left for his team-leading 39th RBI of the season.
Hunter Silvernail's sacrifice fly later that inning cut the deficit to one. Bucknell would add a single run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to snap an 11-game Patriot League losing streak.
Despite the loss in game two, Lafayette picked up a game in the Patriot League standings over rival Lehigh who were swept Saturday at Navy. The two teams will switch locations on Sunday as the Leopards head to Annapolis to take on the Mids and the Mountain Hawks travel to Lewisburg to face Bucknell.
Lafayette is currently 9-10 in the Patriot League, one game ahead of Lehigh at 8-11. The Leopards also own the tiebreaker with Lehigh in the pursuit for a spot in the postseason tournament due to a 3-2 advantage in the head-to-head series.
