RICHMOND, Va. – Spurred by two home runs from Ethan Swidler, Lafayette baseball topped Richmond, 7-6, in a back-and-forth battle on Wednesday at Pitt Field.

Richmond wasted no time taking the lead. On just the second pitch of the game, D.J. Pacheco ripped a solo home run to right field. Later in the inning, the Spiders scored again on a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded. Richmond was not done scoring, extending its lead on singles by Jake Topolski and Aidan O'Keefe to make the score 5-0 after one inning.

Lafayette struck back in the top of the second. With one out, senior Justin Grech lined a triple to right center field. Sophomore Charlie Chropuvka drove in Grech on a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-1.

The Leopards continued to chip away at the deficit in the fifth, when with two outs in the frame, junior Ben Petrone singled down the right field line. Swidler blasted a two-run home run to right field to bring the Leopards within two, 5-3.

With one out in the seventh, junior Easton Brenner pinch hit for sophomore Trevor Dutra. Brenner was awarded first base after being hit by the 3-2 pitch and then stole second base. Freshman Matt Colella punched a single to left field, driving in Brenner and cutting the Leopards' deficit to 5-4. Two batters later, Swidler deposited the first pitch of his at-bat into the seats in right field, giving the Leopards a 6-5 Lead. The home run was Swidler's second of the game and third of the season.

Richmond responded in the bottom half of the inning, scoring on an RBI-single up the middle by Phil Bernstein to tie the game at 6-6.

The Maroon and White stepped back in front in the ninth. Chropuvka walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then Brenner sent a fly ball to center field, which moved Chropuvka to third. With the go-ahead run standing just 90 feet away, Colella hit a high bouncing ball to shortstop and the only play for the drawn-in Spiders' infield was to first base, allowing Chropuvka to score and putting the Leopards back in front, 7-6.

In the bottom half of the frame, senior Joey Pence pitched around a one-out walk and slammed the door on the Spiders to lock up a 7-6 final.

Pence recorded his first win of the season for Lafayette, pitching 2.0 innings, giving up one hit and not allowing a run, while striking out two. Freshman Tristan Helmick and senior Adam Bogosian also pitched well out of the bullpen. Helmick threw two scoreless innings with a strikeout. Bogosian tossed 5.0 innings, giving up five hits and a run. Cole Hentschel took the loss, pitching 1.1 innings, allowing a run without a hit while striking out two.

The Leopards are back in action at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, when they travel to Penn.