WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Lafayette College baseball team dropped its season opener, 25-3, to Wake Forest on Friday in Winston-Salem.
 
The Leopards were led by freshman Ben Petrone who went 3 for 4 with one run, and freshman Michael Zarrillo who went 2 for 3 with one run and two RBIs in their collegaite debuts. 
 
Sophomore starting pitcher Luke Benneche went 4.0 innings and recorded a career-high seven strikeouts.
 
Sophomore Justin Grech started off the game for Lafayette (0-1, 0-0 PL) by reaching first base on an error by Wake Forest's (1-0, 0-0 ACC) shortstop. Petrone than recorded his first collegiate hit to put himself on first and advance Grech to second in the top of the first. Junior Pete Ciuffreda hit into a double play and sophomore Blaze Fadio grounded out to the Demon Deacon's pitcher to end the top of the inning.
 
Benneche came out and got the Wake Forest batters in order to quickly end the first inning.  
 
After senior Dylan Minghini popped out to third base to start of the top of the second, Zarrillo hit a single to left field to put himself on first for the Maroon and White, but the Leopards offense could not get Zarrillo across home plate as junior Seif Ingram flew out to centerfield and junior Kyle Chmelewski struck out looking to end the top of the inning.
 
Benneche struck out the first Demon Deacon batter swinging in the bottom of the second to start off the inning before giving up a single, but the sophomore got the next two batters out to send the game into the bottom of the third with the score 0-0.
 
Lafayette had a chance to get on the board first in the top of the third after freshman Easton Brenner found himself on third, but Ciuffreda struck out swinging with two outs to end the top of the inning.
 
Wake Forest took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. The Demon Deacon's offensive then exploded in the bottom of the fifth, putting up 16 runs to put the score at 17-0 heading into the sixth inning.
 
Lafayette's offensive started to chip away at Wake Forest's lead in the top of the sixth with Petrone starting off the inning for the Leopards with a single to center field. He then advanced to second after Ciuffreda was hit by a pitch and was awarded a trip to first.
 
Back-to-back strikeouts by Fadio and Minghini put Lafayette with two outs and Petrone and Ciuffreda still on base. Zarrillo then doubled to bring home both runners, putting the score at 17-2 Wake Forest.
 
With Zarrillo on second, Ingram hit a triple to bring Zarrillo home and cut Wake Forest's lead to 14 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
 
Wake Forest added eight more runs in the bottom of the sixth bringing the final score to 25-3.  
 
The Lafayette Nine is back in action for two games on Saturday. The Leopards are set for a 10 a.m. game against Virginia Commonwealth University and then a 2 p.m. game against Rider.