April 22, 2008

EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette baseball team will travel to Rutgers on Wednesday for a mid-week non-conference match up. The last time these two teams met was just over a year ago in the NCAA East Regional in Charlottesville, Va., in what marked the Leopards first trip the postseason tournament under head coach Joe Kinney.

Lafayette (19-17, 7-9) is coming off a four-game Patriot League series at Holy Cross on Saturday and Sunday. The Leopards dropped both games on Saturday despite a complete game, six-hit performance from starting pitcher Kevin Reese in the opening contest. The team won the first game on Sunday, using nine hits and capitalizing on three Holy Cross errors to come away with a 6-3 victory.

Junior first baseman Chris Luick leads the Lafayette offense with a .344 batting average and .422 slugging percentage. Sophomore Matt Hall is also hitting over .300 with two triples, tying him for the team lead in that category. Freshman Rob Froio, who has started all 36 games in centerfield, is second among Patriot League freshman with 11 stolen bases and leads Lafayette with seven doubles and two triples.

Rutgers (14-21-1) was also in action last weekend, dropping two of three to Big East opponent South Florida. Luis Feliz's .333 batting average leads the team while his nine doubles are tied for the team-high. Three other Scarlet Knights--Donny Callahan, Jon Gossard and Victor Cegles--are all batting above .300, as well. The Rutgers pitching staff has a collective ERA of 5.68.

The all-time series stands at 60-27 in favor of the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers won a 6-1 regular season contest last season in Piscataway before the teams met again in the NCAA East Regional on June 2. With both teams facing elimination, Lafayette's late rally fell just short as Rutgers came away with the 11-10 win.

The Lafayette pitching staff leads the league with an ERA of 4.96. Reese's ERA of 2.70 is tops in the conference while freshman Zach Fritz stands in third with a 3.03 ERA. The pitching staff has also been helped by a standout defense. Lafayette leads the league with a .973 fielding percentage. The Leopards' 34 errors are 21 fewer than the second-ranked team, Holy Cross.

Following Wednesday's game, the Leopards will play their final league series of the season this weekend at Army with Patriot League Tournament bids and seedings still up for grabs. Lafayette and the Black Knights will play doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's games will begin at 12 p.m. while Sunday's start time is 1 p.m. at Doubleday Field.