By Sean Reis
Production Manager
After an 11-game winning streak, Haverford College dished the Lions their second loss of the season last Wednesday, March 31, in the team’s final game before starting New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) play.
The Lions started sophomore pitcher Matt Curry on the mound, who threw his season’s first loss before freshman pitcher Dylan Crowley gave a stellar relief performance with only one earned run in five and two-thirds innings. Junior pitcher Patrick McCarthy also came out of the bullpen to close, striking out two batters, but McCarthy allowed two unearned runs to reach home, as well.
The final score, 10-1, came after Lions’s senior outfielder John Rizzi scored on an RBI ground out dealt by the bat of senior outfielder Patrick Roberts.
The Lions then began conference play with a doubleheader against Kean University on Saturday, April 2. The team may have lost two tight games in its NJAC opening weekend, but the team played well overall. The Lions went into extra innings before losing, 2-1, in the first game, before falling again, 7-4, later on.
In the team’s first nail-biting loss, senior pitcher Steven Volpe started the doubleheader in a pitching duel against Kean’s fierce starting staff. Both tossed scoreless ball games through the first five innings until the Cougars scored an unearned run in the sixth.
The Lions quickly responded with a run of their own, though, when Roberts led off the top of the seventh inning by hitting his third homerun of the season.
Neither the Lions nor the Cougars scored another run as long as Volpe and Ferguson were on mound for their respective teams, but following 10 innings with only one unearned run and one walk, Volpe called it a day. And in the bottom of the twelfth inning, Curry allowed a walkoff single to rightfield to bring a Cougars runner home and the final score to 2-1.
The Lions will hope to bounce back into their season’s winning groove with back-to-back NJAC games against Stockton University on Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8.
