EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette baseball team clinched a berth into the Patriot League Tournament on Saturday afternoon, heading to postseason play for the first time since 2015 with a split against Holy Cross and two losses from Lehigh in Bethlehem.
The Leopards are locked into the four seed, set to travel to top-seeded Navy next weekend for the semifinal round. Lafayette took care of business in the first game of the doubleheader with Holy Cross, winning by a 15-4 score, while the Crusaders took the second game by a 15-5 margin.
The Leopard offense was on display often in game one on Saturday as freshman
Justin Johnson and junior
Trey Durrah each recorded three-hit performances. Durrah led the team with four RBIs, while senior
Dan Leckie knocked in three runs on Senior Day for the Lafayette Nine.
Sophomore J.P. Woodward put together a solid performance on the mound, racking up seven strikeouts over six innings with three runs allowed, two of them earned and six hits with two walks. Senior
Connor Jones closed it out with one inning of work, giving up two hits and a run to get the final three outs.
Senior
Spencer Rouse drew three walks on the day and classmate
Richard Villa, along with junior
Jake Sniegocki, chipped in with a pair of RBIs each. Johnson, Rouse and Villa each crossed the plate three times.
In game two, the offensive prowess shifted to the other dugout as Holy Cross jumped on the gas with seven runs in the first two innings for a 7-0 advantage. A two-run double from Sniegocki got the Leopards in the score column, but another seven-run frame from the Crusaders in the eighth broke it open.
Leckie popped his fifth home run of the year in the eighth and freshman
Evan Kiah notched his first career hit and RBI in the ninth to cut the final to 15-5.
Michael Dunn picked up his third loss on the mound with 2.1 innings of work, while
Kyle Johnson,
David Giusti,
Andrew Marra,
Jon Faraci,
Frank Craska and
Nick Maiorano all made relief appearances.
The split moves the Leopards to 18-29 overall this season and 11-12 in Patriot League play, while Holy Cross goes to 20-29 overall and 14-9 in conference action. Lafayette finishes up the Patriot League regular season on Sunday afternoon, hosting Army for a pair with first pitch of game one set for 1:05 p.m.
