BOX SCORE Lehman 9, Baruch 2

BOX SCORE Baruch 12, Lehman 11

The Bearcats and Lightning went on to split a CUNYAC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at MCU Park (formerly Key Span) in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.

The visiting Lightning scored first in their opening at-bat and added five more total runs in the fourth inning as part of an overall eight-hit attack to record the opening game 9-2 victory.

The Bearcats were limited to two runs on six total hits to suffer the loss.

In the second game, the Baruch offense erupted by scoring the first six runs to take the 6-0 lead after just two innings of play. They added a run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to eventually help build a 9-3 lead after six innings.

However, the Lightning rallied with seven runs on seven total hits to take the dramatic 10-9 advantage in their final at-bat in the top half of the seventh inning.

The Bearcats were down to their last out in their bottom of the seventh inning, but rallied to tie the game behind the efforts of John Avona. The junior centerfielder singled, stole second and reached third base on an error. Ryan McGuire then stepped up to the plate and hit an RBI single to score Avona with the tying run (10-10).

The two teams went into extra innings and Lehman scored another run in the top of the eight inning to take back the lead at 11-10.

The Bearcats rallied again in their last at-bat and scored twice to record the 12-11 victory to help salvage an important conference doubleheader split.

Richard Melendez stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a two run single to score Joseph Murray and Peter Dinolfo with the winning runs to end the exciting second game at MCU Park.

The Bearcats will continue their weekend series against Lehman on Sunday, April 18, with a Noon time CUNYAC single game on the campus of Lehman College in the Bronx.