NEWARK, DE -- Although the University of Delaware baseball team grabbed an early lead, Lafayette fought back in the middle innings and eventually held on for a 10-7 victory at a windy Bob Hannah Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Freshman Jon Duvall (at right) led the Hen offense with two hits, including an RBI single. Bill Merkler also clubbed his second home run on the season and Adam Tsakonas extened his hitting streak to 12 games, but it was not enough as Delaware (5-13) lost its eighth straight non-conference match-up of the season.

After the teams battled back-and-forth through the first six innings of the game, Lafayette (8-5) took control of the contest in the seventh after the Leopards scored two runs off reliever Michael Londino. Following back-to-back singles by Tom Ambrosole and Matt Hall, the two runners each moved up a base after Londino was called for a balk. Although he nearly worked out of the jam after getting Joe Ezekiel to fly out to short right field before striking out Jeff Butler, the freshman righty surrendered a two-out two-run single to Ryan Roberts that put Lafayette ahead for good.

The Leopards eventually chased another run across the plate in the eighth to pad their lead while relievers Tyler Chromey and Brian Mostek shut down the Delaware offense for the last 4.2 innings of the contest to seal the victory.

The game had looked promising for the Hens after they got on the board first when they opened the scoring with two runs in the second. After Josh Dean walked and Duvall doubled, Kyle Davis ripped a sacrifice fly to left field that brought in the first run. Tsakonas followed with an RBI single up the middle which chased home Duvall.

Lafayette only trailed for a moment, though, as the Leopards scored once in the third and used a two-run home run by Joe Ezekiel in the fourth to grab a 3-2 lead. Delaware quickly answered and knotted the game at three in the bottom of the fourth after Ryan Cuneo walked, advanced to second on a ground out by Dean, and scored on a single by Duvall.

The Leopards came back to retake the lead in the top of the fifth after throwing a four-spot on the scoreboard against freshman Corey Crispell, who came in to relieve starter Dan Richardson. Rob Froio, Tom Hayes, and Chris Luick greeted the righty with three straight hits to lead off the inning before Ambrosole notched a sacrifice fly and Ezekiel roped his second home run of the game on a three-run shot to right center which put Lafayette up, 7-3.

Not to be outdone, the Blue Hens retaliated with their own four-run inning in the bottom of the fifth to retie the game at seven. Tsakonas started the rally after getting plunked by a pitch. After Alex Buchholz worked a walk, Ryan Reed roped an RBI double that plated Tsakonas. Merkler then followed with a three-run blast down the right field line.

Delaware could not do anything after that point, however, as the Lafayette bullpen stunted the Blue Hen offense. Chromey (1-0) earned the win, while Mostek notched his first save of the season after firing 2.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Londino (0-1) took the loss after surrendering three runs in just two innings of work.

The Blue Hens will return to action tomorrow to cap off the series with a doubleheader slated to begin at 1 p.m. The teams had planned to play single games on Saturday and Sunday but decided to double-up due to the impending weather on Saturday.

Boxscore