Saturday, March 26
Raleigh, N.C.
12:00 PM

Lehigh University

5
at
7

North Carolina State

North Carolina State takes a pair from Lehigh

3/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Raleigh, NC – Lehigh fought hard but came up short in suffering a doubleheader sweep at the hands of North Carolina State at Doak Field on Saturday afternoon.  Game scores were 7-5 and 6-3 in favor of the host Wolfpack.  Lehigh heads back to Bethlehem with a record of 8-8-1 overall.  N.C. State’s record now stands at 18-8 with the pair of wins.

 

In game one, five different Mountain Hawks collected two hits apiece as Lehigh ripped 12 hits, including the first triple of the season from shortstop Liam O’Connor.  Designated hitter Matt Geiger was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in a losing effort. 

 

Trailing by a 7-4 score in the eighth inning, Lehigh tried to turn the tables on N.C. State – who scored seven times in the eighth against Lehigh Friday – but the Mountain Hawks could only muster one run on Wolfpack pitching in the frame. 

 

Lehigh junior Kyle Collina (2-3) got the start on the hill, and he was saddled with the loss after allowing seven earned runs in 6.2 innings.  Collina did strike out seven N.C. State batters.  For the Wolfpack, Matt Payne (1-0) came on out of the bullpen in the fifth inning to earn his first victory of the season.

 

In game two, the Mountain Hawks led 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth before the Wolfpack rallied to score four unanswered runs for the come-from-behind win.

 

Center fielder Joe Ercolano hit a solo homer to right-center in the top of the third to give LU a one-nothing lead.  The blast was the second of the season for Ercolano.  Down by a 2-1 count in the fourth inning, left fielder Andrew Smith blasted a two-run home run to nearly the identical spot to put the visitors back on top, 3-2.  For Smith, the homer was his sixth of the season – tops in the Patriot League.

 

The Wolfpack answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and one more in the seventh en route to the win.

 

Lehigh freshman Joe Matteo (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season after pitching 5.2 innings for the Brown and White.  N.C. State senior Phillip Davidson worked 7.2 innings to pick up the win.

 

The Mountain Hawks return to the diamond on Tuesday, when Lehigh visits La Salle.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 pm from Philadelphia.