CONEY ISLAND, N.Y. – The #3 Lehman College baseball team dropped its opening game of the 2013 CUNY Athletic Conference Championships on Monday, May 6, to #2 Baruch 5-1. Lehman will play #4 John Jay on Tuesday, May 7, at 1:00 p.m., in the double elimination Championships. The winner will advance to the 7:00 p.m. game tomorrow night, with the loser being eliminated from the Championships. All games are being played at MCU Park on Coney Island.

Lehman got off to a great start, pushing a run across in the top of the first inning. Center fielder Michael Liang (Bronx, N.Y./Manhattan Center) singled to left field, scoring Kevin Hernandez (Bronx, N.Y./DeWitt Clinton), who singled to lead the game off.

However, Baruch scored twice in the bottom half of the inning off of Lehman starter Wilfredo Gonzalez (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's), taking a 2-1 lead.

Both pitchers settled down, and the game moved quickly into the sixth inning, where junior Socrates Peralta (Santo Domingo, D.R./Morris) walked to lead off the inning for Lehman, then advanced to second base on a Liang single to left. Alberto German reached on a fielder's choice, sending Peralta to third, as Liang was ruled out at second base. With runners on the corners and one out, Lehman botched a suicide squeeze attempt, and Peralta was hung out to dry. The inning quickly ended from there, and the Lehman threat was turned aside.

Baruch then took advantage of a shaken Lehman team, and the Bearcats pushed across two insurance runs in the bottom half of the inning. Baruch later scored their fifth run in the bottom of the eighth.

Refusing to yield, Lehman rallied in the ninth inning. Michael Liang led off with his third single of the day. With two outs, Miguel Nunez (Santo Domingo, D.R./George Washington) and Russbert Eugenio (Bronx, N.Y./Environmental Studies) both got hit by pitches – consecutive pitches actually – and the potential game-tying run came to the plate in the person of senior catcher Onix Mejia (Corona, N.Y./Renaissance Charter). Mejia fought off several tough pitches, and eventually grounded out to the short stop to end the ball game.

Gonzalez took the loss, throwing into the eighth inning, yielding five unearned runs on nine hits, fanning two. “His performance was gutty today,” said head coach Chris Viggiano, of Gonzalez. “He did what we he was supposed to do. He gave us a shot to win the game.”

Today's loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Lightning.