By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Lafayette set the tone from the beginning with six runs in the first inning and a strong start from pitcher Halen Jonas, leading the Irish to a 14-3 win over Bishop LeBlond on Thursday at Phil Welch Stadium.
The Irish (6-2) drew 13 free passes in the win - 10 of those being walks. Lafayette also scored three unearned runs, benefitting from three LeBlond errors and three total balks by LeBlond pitchers.
Lafayette led 8-0 in the second and then 11-0 in the fourth inning before LeBlond (0-5) scored its first two runs in the fifth and then one in the bottom of the sixth.
The Irish scored three insurance runs in the top of the sixth to put themselves in run rule position.
Eli Castle led the way at the plate for Lafayette, going 2-for-3 with a double, four RBIs and a pair of stolen bases.
Halen Jonas, Jake McQuiston, Ayden Hardy and Walker Cave all scored twice in the win.
"We didn't swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone," Lafayette coach Matt Jansen said. "We stayed consistent with it, given the circumstance and keep moving in the right direction offensively."
On the hill, Jonas was dialed in, striking out six of his 10 batters faced, allowing only one hit and one walk.
"Honestly, I didn't think I was going to do all that good," he said. "My arm was hurting a lot. I got here, didn't have the best warmups and then, as a team, we all kind of locked in last moment, went in there and took over."
Cave pitched the middle 2.2 innings, while Drake Losson closed it out with a pair of strikeouts in the sixth to end the game via run rule.
After a 2-2 start to the season, with early losses to stout Benton and Savannah squads, Lafayette has now reeled off four straight wins - all against MEC competition.
"We're starting to kind of find our groove," Jansen noted. "We're hoping we've found a group of young men that we can kind of continue to gel and build chemistry through. Yeah, I think we're starting to find our groove offensively."
Lafayette is home to East Buchanan on Monday at 4:30. LeBlond visits Plattsburg on Monday at 4:30 as well.
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