By KY-SHON HEPBURN

Special to GoUSFBulls.com

TAMPA - The Bulls were unable to clinch the season series against Lafayette on Sunday. 

USF (14-7, 0-0) fell to Lafayette, 7-6, before a crowd of 970 at USF baseball complex. 

"If we play like we played the last two games we will get beat again," said head coach Lelo Prado. 

The Bulls got on the scoreboard first on back-to-back RBI-singles by Kyle Teaf and Luis Llerena.  Chad Taylor followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Bulls an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. 

Lafayette cut the Bulls lead to 3-1 in the top of the third inning on an RBI sac-fly by Andrew Santomauro to score Thomas Dunleavy. 

Brad Hopek singled to right field to score Dunleavy, Ruck hit a two RBI-single and Tim Lazor doubled to left field to bring home Kevin Casey and give Lafayette a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning. 

Starting pitcher Matt Reed pitched 4.2 innings allowing nine hits, four runs, and two walks. 

The Bulls were able to get a run back in the fifth inning on a two-out single by Zac Gilcrease to score Anthony Diaz and cut the deficit to 4-3.

Lafayette added two more runs in the sixth inning to take a 7-4 advantage. 

USF added another run in the eighth inning when Llerena batted in Gilcrease on a single to left field to make the score 7-5.

The Bulls rallied in the ninth inning scoring a run on a single by Gilcrease, but were unable to bat in any more runs. 

"We're not good enough to just show up, we have to play," said Prado. 

Relievers Adrian Puig, Nick Gonzalez, Austin Adams and Ray Delphey all pitched for the Bulls.

The Bulls look to bounce back in a one-game series against UCF at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at USF baseball complex.