St. Joe's Sends Lightning To Third Straight Loss

April 12, 2012

Box Score

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - After back-to-back lopsided defeats to a pair of SUNY schools, Farmingdale and Old Westbury, the Lightning looked to get back on track against another non-conference opponent on Thursday afternoon only to be turned aside for a third straight time as Lehman lost to St. Joseph's 7-5 at MCU Park to drop its overall record to 9-12.

Lehman looked on its way to redeeming itself early as the Lightning grabbed the 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout by Freddy Parra in the top of the first inning.

St. Joseph's came right back, however, with four of its own in the bottom of the inning, using RBI hits by Joe Mendez and Chris Cutrone and two Lehman errors to forge ahead 4-1.

Unfazed, Lehman answered when given its next opportunity in the top of the second with Frank Almonte delivering the big blow, a three-run triple, to score Christian Fadul, Christopher Tavarez and Nick Morales and tie the game at 4-4. Michael Liang followed with a sacrifice fly to score Amonte, and just like that, Lehman was back in front.

Lightning started Stephen Valdes threw up zeros over the next three frames before the Bears to to him in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Cutrone that tied the game.

After going down in order in the sixth, Lehman put runners on second and third with one out in the top of the seventh, but failed to cash in. The missed opportunity would prove costly as St. Joseph's scored two runs without a hit against Lightning reliever Wilfredo Gonzalez in its half of the seventh to go ahead 7-5.

Given the lead back, Bears starter Paul Piccirillo recorded the final six outs without much drama to earn his seventh victory of the season. Piccirillo held the Lightning to just six hits on the afternoon with Almonte touching him for two hits.

Lehman returns to conference action on Saturday with a critical doubleheader against Baruch College set for 12 p.m. at MCU Park.

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