By Chris Caron
After starting out the season against upper-echelon teams like College of Charleston and the Auburn Tigers, Lafayette was the farthest thing from imposing.
The Pride baseball team started out the weekend with a three-game set against the Auburn Tigers and sent a shock into the No. 10 team in the nation.
After not playing for two weeks courtesy of rainouts against Mount Saint Mary’s, the Pride finally played a game against an opponent in great weather conditions and in front of a big crowd at Auburn. “It is unbelievable to play in front of that crowd, you get so much energy just playing there,” sophomore center fielder Josh Stewart said of the average attendence of 3,500 at Auburn.
In the first game of the series the Pride trailed, 2-0, but battled back in the bottom of the second by scoring four runs. The inning started off with singles from sophomores Josh Stewart, senior Mike Perullo, sophomore Steve Oliveri and sophomore J.P Wechter, followed by an RBI double by right fielder freshman Eric Balson.
Auburn responded with a run in the bottom of the third followed by five runs in the fourth and an eight run breakout in the fifth to put the Tigers up 16-4. The Tigers picked up three more runs in the game to win 19-4.
Game two turned out to be the most impressive of the series for the Pride. Freshman walk-on pitcher Charlie Frego started the game for the Pride and gave his team a chance to win against the Tigers by holding Auburn to just two runs over the first six innings. “It’s has got to be unbelievable for him and it’s great,” Stewart said.
With the score at 2-1 in favor of the Auburn the Pride scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-2 lead, but Auburn would respond in the bottom half with four runs and would hold onto a 6-4 win.
“We were very fortunate to get a break or they wind up winning that ballgame,” said Tigers Head Coach Steve Renfro.
Frego (0-1) picked up his first loss of the season, Stewart went 1-or-3 with 3 RBI.
In the third and final game of the series the Tigers used six different pitchers to throw a two-hitter against the Pride in a 9-3 win.
Freshman pitcher Ryan Dunn got his first start of his collegiate career and allowed 7 runs in 3 2/3 innings. Ricky Caputo had two RBI’s and J.P. Wechter had an RBI and a run scored for the Pride who headed back to Hempstead with a record of 0-5. Auburn improved to 9-1 and moved up to No. 9 in the nation.
On Wednesday’s game the Pride used its ability to quickly jump on top of the Lafayette Leopards in its first home game of the season. Senior Patrick Dahlgren shut down the Leopards in the top of the first inning, then in the bottom half of the first Josh Stewart led off with a solo home run giving the Pride a 1-0 lead.
“I usually get fastballs early on in the count so I was up there looking for one and I got it,” Stewart said.
The lead remained the same until the fourth inning when the Pride padded its lead with a two run home run by freshman right fielder George Athanasopolous and an RBI single by freshman left fielder Eric Balson.
Dotolo used eight different pitchers to combine for a four-hitter over the Leopards giving the Pride its first win of the season. “I think they all did what they were supposed to do, they went out there and threw strikes and that is all I am asking them to do,” Dotolo said.
Freshman John Furhman picked up the win after pitching a scoreless second inning and senior Terrence Vogenburger picked up his first save of the season.
Perullo had an RBI double in the game as well.
“When we get done with this homestand I want to be 10-5, and this was just game one and we have four big ones this weekend and I expect us to win all four,” Dotolo said.
The Pride will next be in action this Saturday and Sunday with consecutive double-headers against Dartmouth at University Field. Both days games will start at noon. “They are going to have three or four arms that are pretty good and if we swing that bat like we did today we are going to be in big time trouble,” Dotolo said.
Sophomore David Huth gets the start in game one of the doubleheader and Frego will start game two against Dartmouth on Saturday.