Apr. 2, 2011

Box Score Gm. 1
Box Score Gm. 2

When Lightning hurler Brian Cubero has all three pitches – his fastball, curveball and changeup – working, he's arguably one of the toughest in the CUNY conference, a fact that visiting John Jay could attest to through the first five innings of the opening game of its doubleheader with Lehman.

Up to that point, the junior righthander had spun five no-hit innings, making the lone run scored by the Lightning back in the first inning stand up.

In the sixth inning, though, Cubero's – and Lehman's – fortunes changed.

Following Benjamin Beiro's line out to left field, Bobby Villante lined a clean single to right field to break up the no-hit bid. Cubero captured the second out of the inning on a fly ball to center, but then hit Yahnny Arias and surrendered the game-tying base hit to Dennis Lopez. With the game tied, Cubero was unable to escape further damage as John Jay received a two-run double from Wilmer Chavez and a two-run home run from Ryan Corrigan.

Trailing 5-1, the Lightning dug down deep to answer right back in the bottom of the sixth. Lehman manufactured four straight hits, highlighted by a booming RBI double to center field by George Flores and a two-run home run to left field off the bat of Raul Cordero that tied the game.

After Cubero recomposed himself to set the Bloodhounds down in order in the top of the seventh, Lehman had thoughts of taking the game in its final at bat as Christian Fadul led off with a base hit. The Lightning's potential winning rally was short circuited, though, when Jhon Comas Disla banged into a double play.

Cubero soldiered on into the eighth, but eventually allowed the deciding two runs on back-to-back hits by Chavez and Corrigan with two outs in the inning.

Tagged with the loss to fall to 1-4, Cubero finished with 10 strikeouts.

At the dish, Fadul went 3-for-4 while Cordero collected two hits in four trips to the plate.

In the second game, Chavez continued his hot hitting, adding four hits and five RBIs to his first game totals (two hits, three RBIs), as the Bloodhounds pounded the Lightning 16-4.

Fadul added three more hits in the second game for the Lightning.

With the doubleheader loss, the Lightning has now lost nine in a row and sits at 4-12 on the season.

The two teams will get reacquainted on Sunday afternoon for a single game as Lehman looks to get back in the win column.