WILMINGTON, D.E. – The D'Youville University baseball team opened their Spring Break trip on Friday with a loss to Goldey-Beacom College by a score of 6-2.
 
Senior Chris Auclair (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) toed the rubber for the Saints and was greeted rudely by the Lightning. Three singles put Goldey-Beacom ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first. A walk loaded the bases with just one out, but Auclair struck out the next two batters to avoid further damage. He punched out two more in the bottom of the second and retired the side in order as the score remained 1-0.
 
In the top of the third, senior Dillon Crook (Liverpool, N.Y.) deposited a base hit into left and advanced to third on a fielder's choice and an error. The Saints had runners on the corners with one away, but a double play ended the inning and kept DYU off the board. Junior Billy Morris (Lancaster, N.Y.) led off the top of the fourth with a single and moved into scoring position on a groundout. Junior Blaise Kolbert (Lancaster, N.Y.) drew a walk to place runners at first and second with two outs, but the Saints were unable to push them across.
 
Auclair worked around a leadoff walk to strand a runner at second and keep the score at 1-0 heading into the top of the fifth inning. He punched out his seventh hitter of the day to complete a clean bottom of the fifth.
 
After walking the leadoff hitter to start the bottom of the sixth, Auclair surrendered a two-run homer to give the Lightning a 3-0 advantage. An error and an RBI double extended Goldey-Beacom's lead to 4-0 and ended Auclair's day. The Lightning tacked on one more run off redshirt sophomore Connor Joedicke (Bloomville, N.Y.) to make it 5-0.
 
In the top of the seventh, junior Jonathan Simpson (Grand Island, N.Y.) slugged his first home run of the season to cut the Lightning's lead to 5-1. Kolbert followed with a base hit, but DYU was unable to bring him in. Senior Connor Bowman (Orchard Park, N.Y.) tossed a scoreless inning and struck out two batters in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Junior Kevin Del Vecchio (Niagara Falls, Ontario) led off the top of the eighth with his first home run of the season to make it a 5-2 game. However, Goldey-Beacom responded with a leadoff homer of their own in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6-2. The Saints were unable to score in the ninth and the Lightning took game one of the four-game set.
 
Auclair went 5.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out a season-high seven batters. Morris turned in a multi-hit performance for the third time this season.
 
With the loss, D'Youville drops to 2-7. They will be back in action on Saturday for a doubleheader with Goldey-Beacom starting at 11:00 a.m.