YORK, Pa. – The Lesley University baseball team fell to the top seed in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, 15-2, Thursday afternoon. Sophomore second baseman Vincent Taliercio (Valley Stream, N.Y.) went two-for-four with a double and a run scored from the top of the Lynx batting order.

Lesley drops to 21-18-1 on the season while Johns Hopkins improves to 37-6 and moves into the winner's bracket in the Mid-Atlantic Regional.

Taliercio led off the game taking a 1-0 pitch from Alex Ross the opposite way into the right-centerfield gap. After advancing 90 feet on a fly-ball to straight away centerfield, Taliercio scored on a fielder's choice by first year first baseman Matthew Warner (San Diego, Calif.) to give the Lynx the 1-0 lead.

Johns Hopkins shortstop Conor Reynolds led of the home half of the first with a towering fly-ball off the leftfield wall. But junior right-hander Tom Muratore (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) settled down. After setting down rightfielder Brian Lin on strikes, he caught Reynolds sleeping at second for the second out. Two batters later, Muratore got former Mamaroneck teammate, Blue Jays catcher Ryan Orgielewicz to ground into a fielder's choice for the final out of the inning.

Muratore was aided by solid defense in the middle infield. In the top of the second the Lynx escaped another lead-off base-hit getting Hopkins leftfielder Jon Hayden to ground into a taylor-made double-play for the first and second outs. Muratore got centerfielder Tommy Mee to ground out to slick fielding shortstop Nicholas Ferragine (Randolph, N.J.) for the final out.

However, Johns Hopkins was able to take advantage of back-to-back base-hits by first baseman Jon Conlon and second baseman Mike Eberle to begin the bottom of the third. After Reynolds worked a walk to load the bases, Lin walked on four pitches to force home the tying run. The Blue Jays were not done as they scored twice more to take the 3-1 lead.

The Blue Jays added to their two innings later batting around to put up a crooked number eight to take an 11-1 lead and knock Muratore out of the game. Coming on with two outs in the fifth, junior right-hander Jeff Heinz (Portsmouth, N.H.) allowed a triple down the rightfield line before getting third baseman Mike Smith to pop out to second to end the frame.

In the top of the sixth, the Lynx managed to push across their second run. Sophomore backstop Jacob Cervantes (Oxnard, Calif.) reached on a throwing error by the shortstop. Two batters Ferragine took a 1-1 pitch the opposite way to bring home Cervantes for the second Lynx run. But it was all they were able to muster.  

Johns Hopkins scored four more times in the bottom of the seventh against first year Steven DePalma (Albertson, N.Y.), who came on in relief of Heinz. In 1.1 innings, Heinz allowed just two hits while striking out one.

Taliercio led the Lynx at the plate going two-for-four with a double and a run scored while Ferragine was one-for-two with a walk and an RBI. Muratore took the loss falling to 7-4 after giving up seven earned runs on 13 hits while striking out three Blue Jays.

Lesley returns to the diamond tomorrow morning when they face the fourth-seed RIT in the first game at 10:00 a.m.