Atlantic City, NJ – The Lehigh baseball team suffered their first two losses of the season Sunday, dropping a doubleheader to Albany 7-4 and 8-7. The Mountain Hawks had started the season with six straight victories before Sunday’s losses.
In the first game, Albany got to starter Kyle Colina (0-1) early, touching him for 5 runs and knocking him out after 4 innings. Colina gave up 8 hits, but did strike out 5 batters.
Eric Hoffman and Jesse Novalis each homered in the game to provide the scoring. Hoffman’s was a solo blast, while Novalis clubbed a 3-run homer.
The second game saw Albany come back repeatedly against the Mountain Hawks, as Lehigh got out to a 2-0 lead to start the game and had a 7-5 lead late. Albany tied it at 7-7, then scored the winning run in the 6th on a sac fly. Matt Mezzancello (0-1) took the loss, as he pitched one inning but gave up the winning run.
“We didn’t execute today,” said head coach Sean Leary. “We played a little sloppy, and Albany took advantage of it at every opportunity. I thought our offense was good, particularly the 2-5 hitters, they were a real bright spot. But we just didn’t do enough defensively.”
On the day Hoffman was 4-6 with the home run, while Novalis was 3-7 with the homer and 4 RBIs. Matt McBride had three hits on the day as well.
Lehigh plays their next game at Delaware State on Wednesday March 3, with the first pitch set for 2:30 pm.
