PAINESVILLE, OHIO – Host Mansfield University used the long ball to take a pair of games from the Lake Erie College baseball team on Tuesday (April 6).  The Mountaineers hit nine home runs in the two games to earn the 15-4, 21-3 sweep.

Junior Brandon James (Mentor, Ohio), sophomore Matt Vanni (Willowick, Ohio/Benedictine) and freshman Cody Blood (Conneaut, Ohio/Conneaut) homered for the Storm (9-16), which has lost a season-high eight straight.

Regionally-ranked Mansfield (17-11) got a lead-off home run from Matt Hamilton and led 7-0 in game one before Blood and sophomore Mike Morgan (Indian Lake, Ohio/Russells Point) each drove in a run in the fourth.  But Dan Chevalier and Hamilton each homered in a five-run bottom of the fourth that allowed the Mounties to pull away.  James added a two-run shot, his sixth of the year, in the top of the fifth for the Storm's final two runs.

In game two, Mansfield went deep four times as part of a 17-hit attack, scoring six runs in the third and nine in the fourth.  Vanni hit a two-run home run in the ninth to spoil the shutout, and Blood followed with his first collegiate long ball for back-to-back shots.

The Storm had just 12 hits between the two games, compared to 30 by Mansfield.

Lake Erie will look to put an end it its skid on Wednesday (Aril 7) at Mercyhurst College.

-LEC-