TOWSON, Md. – The Lafayette baseball team fell in Sunday's doubleheader at Towson by a close 8-7 final in game one and by a final 13-4 in game two.
The Leopards were led in the first game by junior
Colin Hartey and sophomore
Justin Johnson who went 3-for-5 and 2-for-3 from the plate, respectively. Starting pitcher senior
Brett Kreyer went six innings, striking out three.
In game two, nine Leopards recorded a hit and starting pitcher sophomore
Jake Bloss went 3.2 innings, striking out three. Freshman
Nolan Morr made his collegiate debut, pitching 2.1 innings out of the bullpen, striking out four.
Lafayette (4-10) was the first to strike in game one, when Johnson started off the game with a lead-off walk. Hartey then doubled to advance Johnson to third, putting runners on second and third for junior
Ethan Stern. Stern hit a sacrifice fly to score Johnson and put the Leopards up 1-0.
Sophomore
Dylan Minghini then reached first on an error by Towson's (5-9) center fielder scoring Hartey to put Lafayette up 2-0. Senior
Mark Glover then singled to right field to bring Minghini home and give the Leopards a 3-0 lead.
Towson scored one run in the bottom of the first but the Leopards continued to add runs in the top of the second, putting two more across the plate to make it 5-1 heading into the third.
With the Leopards up 5-1 heading into the seventh, Towson scored seven runs over the seventh and eighth inning to come from behind and take an 8-6 lead heading into the ninth. Lafayette was only able to answer one of those runs in the top of the ninth giving Towson the game one win.
In game two, Towson put up three runs in the third and one in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead heading into the fifth.
Hartey and Stern got the seventh inning started for the Leopards with back-to-back singles and then both advancing on a wild pitch to put runners in scoring position. Minghini then walked to load the bases. After Glover struck out and senior
Trey Durrah lined out, freshman
Patrick Vandenbergh, in to pinch hit, singled to score both Stern and Hartey, cutting the Tiger's lead in half.
Towson responded to the Leopards two runs with nine runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 13-2 lead heading into the final inning.
Lafayette added two runs in the top of the ninth but couldn't cut the Tiger's lead down anymore, dropping the second game of the doubleheader, 13-4.
Lafayette travels to Florida on Friday to participate in the Snowbird Classic and is set to play a three-game series Friday-Sunday against Georgetown in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. Friday and Saturday's games are set for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch and Sunday's first pitch is set for 12:30 p.m.
