EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette College baseball team split its doubleheader with the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday, dropping game one, 6-2, and walking off game two, 1-0.  
 
The Leopards were led in game one by senior Dylan Minghini who went 2-for-3 for a solo home run. Starting pitcher sophomore Luke Benneche went five innings, striking out six. They were led in game two by sophomore Justin Grech who went 1-for-5 with the lone RBI of the game.
 
Game two starting pitcher, junior Jake Bloss, threw his first complete game of the season, going all nine innings and striking out seven Crusaders.
 
Holy Cross (11-32, 6-11 PL) struck first in the top of the second to take a 3-0 lead. Minghini responded with a solo home run in the bottom of the second to pull Lafayette (13-28, 8-9 PL) within two.
 
The Crusaders added another run in the top of the third to take a 4-1 lead. The Leopards added another run of their own in the bottom of the third after junior Pete Ciuffreda stole second and then advanced home to score on a throwing error by the Crusaders' catcher.
 
Holy Cross added another run in the top of the fifth to take a 5-2 lead and one in the top of the sixth to put the score at 6-2.
 
Lafayette had a chance to plate more runs in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs, but freshman Kaleb Willis flied out to right field to end the inning and leave all three runners stranded in the 6-2 final.
 
Game two proved to be a defensive battle until the ninth inning. After the Crusaders hit a one out single, Bloss struck out the next two batters to send the game to the bottom of the ninth.
 
Freshman Carter Dorighi singled to right field with one out in the bottom of the ninth to spark the Leopards' offense. Two batters later with two outs, junior Patrick Vandenbergh singled to center field and advanced Dorighi to third to put the winning run in scoring position. Freshman Easton Brenner then walked to load the bases. Grech then hit an infield single to bring Dorighi home and give Lafayette the walk-off bottom of the ninth victory.
 
The Leopards and Crusaders close out the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Sunday is Senior Day and the program will honor Justin Johnson, Zach Savage, Kyle Subers, Frank Craska, Evan Kiah, Dylan Minghini, Ethan O'Connor, Jake Bloss, and Jordan Yoder for their years of hard work and dedication to the program.