Baseball Continues Road Stretch with Three-Game Series at Lafayette

Saturday, April 8

Easton, Pa.

12 p.m.

Bucknell University

Lafayette

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Baseball Continues Road Stretch with Three-Game Series at Lafayette

4/6/2023 12:15:00 PM | Baseball

Bucknell (14-14, 7-5 PL) at Lafayette (8-22, 4-4 PL)
When: Saturday, Apr. 8, 12 p.m. (DH); Sunday, Apr. 9, 12 p.m.
Where: Kamine Stadium, Easton, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoLeopards.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison continue a nine-game road trip this weekend with a three-game Patriot League series at Lafayette. Bucknell swept a doubleheader from the Leopards a Depew Field on March 24.
The start of this road stretch has already been a wild ride for the Bison. Last weekend's doubleheaders at Army and Holy Cross were pushed back a day due to weather, making Tuesday's non-league game at Penn State the team's fifth game in a three-day span. Bucknell split a pair at West Point before suffering two frustrating losses at Holy Cross on Monday, but then the team bounced right back and won a crazy 17-14 game at Penn State.
Tuesday's win over the Nittany Lions was Bucknell's 10th come-from-behind victory of the season and the fourth time the Bison scored the winning run in their final at-bat.
Grant Voytovich and Sean Keys were two of the stars of the win at Penn State, and both are carrying piping-hot bats into the Lafayette series. Voytovich went 4-for-6 with six RBIs against the Nittany Lions his second-inning grand slam help the Bison get out to an early 7-0 lead, and after Penn State rallied to go up 14-13, he drove in the tying run with a base hit in the ninth. Voytovich also had a four-hit game against Army on Sunday and is 11-for-20 with nine RBIs in the last four games.
Keys also had a six-RBI game at Penn State, the last three coming on a tiebreaking three-run homer in the ninth, just after Voytovich had tied it up. Keys, who has a team-high seven home runs on the season, also hit a walk-off three-run shot against Lehigh on March 26. He is 8-for-16 over the last four games to up his season average to .330, eighth-best in the Patriot League. He also ranks second in the league in RBIs (32), slugging percentage (.640), and OPS (1.073), third in home runs, and eighth in hits (33) and on-base percentage (.433).
Anthony Sherwin and Jacob Corson both had three hits and scored four runs against Penn State. The top four in the order – Sherwin, Corson, Voytovich, Keys – went 13-for-20 with six doubles, two homers, 14 RBIs, and 13 runs scored in the game.
Sherwin is hitting .362 on the season with 25 hits and 22 RBIs in 19 games. He missed nine games early in the season due to injury and does not qualify yet for the Patriot League batting title, but his .362 average would rank third in the league.
Instead, Kyle Lyons occupies the No. 3 spot in the PL batting race with a .361 average. Lyons has played a terrific center field while giving the team good production from the No. 9 spot in the batting order.
Corson is now hitting .256 after his three-hit game at Penn State, but he has ranked among the league leaders in on-base percentage all season. He leads the PL in both walks (23) and hit-by-pitches (9) and ranks fifth in OBP (.447).
Also swinging hot bats of late are catcher Nic Adamo and DH Chris Klein. Adamo has been splitting the doubleheaders with Jake Wortman and is 9-for-20 (.450) in his last five starts, with multiple hits in four of them. He is hitting .385 with a 1.179 OPS in 12 appearances. Klein has hits in six of his last seven games and has raised his season average to .378 in 17 games (11 starts). Four of his last eight hits are doubles.
As a team, Bucknell ranks second in the Patriot League with a .288 batting average and runs per game (7.0).
On the pitching side, Bucknell is third in the league with a 5.79 team ERA. Opponents are hitting .283 against the Bison.
Army enters the weekend atop the Patriot League standings at 6-2. Bucknell and Navy, who have both played four more games than the rest of the league, are next at 7-5, followed by Lafayette (4-4), Holy Cross (3-5), and Lehigh (1-7).
In addition to the Bucknell-Lafayette series this weekend, Army hosts Lehigh and Navy hosts Holy Cross.

Lafayette at a Glance/Series History

The Leopards had a rough day at Depew Field on March 24, falling to Bucknell 11-0 and 20-2, but they have played good baseball since then. Lafayette split a doubleheader at Navy, beat Penn 6-5 in a mid-week game as part of the Liberty Bell Classic, then took 3 of 4 from arch-rival Lehigh last weekend. The Leopards did drop a 19-3 decision at Delaware on Tuesday, but since leaving Lewisburg they are 5-3 with two shutout wins.
Alex Walsh tossed a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts in an 8-0 win at Navy, and Joe Skapinetz struck out 10 in six shutout innings in last Sunday's 4-0 win over Lehigh. Bucknell did not face Walsh last month. He is now 2-1 on the season with a 3.51 ERA in seven appearances. Skapinetz pitched in relief in game one of the doubleheader against the Bison and allowed just an unearned run while striking out four and walking three in 2.2 innings.
Michael Zarillo leads the team and ranks sixth in the Patriot League with a .341 average. He has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games.
Pete Ciuffreda is hitting .229 but leads the Patriot League with nine home runs. He has three two-homer games this season.
Lafayette has a 122-83-1 record in 206 all-time meetings dating back to 1895.
Bucknell won three of the five meetings last season. The two teams split a doubleheader in Easton, and the Bison won 2 of 3 at Depew Field later in the season.
Bucknell had the better of this year's first clashes, as the Bison piled up 31 runs on 31 hits and drew 17 walks from eight different Leopards pitchers. The 31 runs were Bucknell's most in a single doubleheader since scoring 34 (15-3 and 19-1) against Clarion in 2012. It was the team's third-highest output ever in a Patriot League doubleheader, behind only the 33 runs against Lafayette in 2000 and 32 against Holy Cross in 1996.
Chris DiFiore twirled a two-hit shutout in Bucknell's 11-0 win in game one. Anthony Sherwin went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and Sean Keys added a double and a triple to lead the offense.
Bucknell scored 20 runs on 22 hits in the nightcap, with Ben Sinins, Tyler Dunn, Billy Kender, and Kyle Lyons all collecting three hits. Sinins drove in four runs, and Henry Novicki had a pinch-hit three-run double. On the mound, Will Greer took a perfect game into the fifth inning and allowed only an unearned run on one hit while fanning eight in his seven-inning stint.

Looking Ahead

The March 14 rainout at UMBC has been re-scheduled for next Tuesday, Apr. 11 at 4 p.m.
The Bison will then host Army for three games the following weekend at Depew Field.