Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

STATEN ISLAND, NY --- The Lehman College baseball team concluded their 2016 season on Saturday evening in the second day of the CUNYAC Championship tournament hosted by the College of Staten Island, splitting their two games with a 3-1 victory over the John Jay College of Criminal Justice before falling 8-5 to Baruch College in the semifinals.
 
The Lightning of Lehman conclude their season with a 10-28 record, winning two playoff games for the first time in recent history.
 
Facing the Bloodhounds of John Jay (13-28) for the third time this season, the Lightning won what was effectively the rubber-match in a winner-take-all tournament elimination game. Lehman junior pitcher Emanuel Castro (Providence, RI / Monsenor Juan Feliz Pepen) had his best game of the season, allowing just four hits and one earned run over nine innings while striking out nine Bloodhounds for his first win. Down 1-0 heading into the top of the fifth inning and with their season on the line, Lehman's bats exploded for three runs. Junior shortstop Anthony Careccia (Bronx, NY / Archbishop Stepinac) lead off the inning with a double, advancing to third on a wild pitch. After junior Steve Cuello (Bronx, NY / Roosevelt) walked, sophomore center fielder Carlo Francisco (Yonkers, NY / Yonkers) singled to center, scoring Careccia and tying the game up. Sophomore left fielder Natanael Toribio (Santiago, DR / Cenapec) walked to load the bases, and junior third baseman Juan Arias (Bronx, NY / Norman Thomas) hit an RBI sacrifice fly as the Lighting took their first lead of the game. The very next at bat, sophomore first baseman Christopher Lopez (Bronx, NY / Lehman HS) singled to left, scoring Francisco for the 3-1 lead. That score would hold up, as fifth-seeded Lehman advanced to the next round.
 
With a chance to play host College of Staten for the Championship on Sunday on the line, the Lightning met the second-seeded Bearcats of Baruch (14-17). Lehman put up three runs in the top of the first, with a sacrifice fly from Toribio and a two-run error that saw Arias and Lopez cross home plate. Up 3-1 going into the second, Francisco doubled home Cuello and was driven in himself on an RBI single from Lopez. Lehman had a 5-1 lead and were poised to enter the championship round. Baruch would rally, however, scoring two runs in the fourth, and tying the game at five runs apiece off an error in the bottom of the sixth. The Bearcats then took advantage of two costly Lehman errors in the bottom of the eighth to surge ahead 8-5, and the Lightning saw their season come to an end.
 
Lehman exceeded expectations this postseason, entering the tournament as the fifth seed and going 2-2 and taking losses only to the eventual finalists and essentially finishing third. At press time, Francisco led the entire conference in hits, triples, home runs and total bases and finishing second in slugging. Lopez tied for second in the league in RBI while junior pitcher Francisco Pena (New York, NY / Landmark) emerged as the staff ace, leading the CUNYAC in total strikeouts.
 
Congratulations to the whole team on the conclusion of their season.