Lehigh University
No. 4 Army
Mountain Hawks blank Army in tournament opener
5/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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The Mountain Hawks will now face No. 2 seed Colgate in the winner’s bracket game, Friday at 11:00 am. The Raiders knocked off No. 3 Lafayette 9-1 in five innings in Thursday’s second game.
After Sweeney retired the Black Knights in order in the top of the first, Lehigh mustered a pair of runs without the benefit of a hit in the bottom of the frame. Stauffer walked leadoff batter Kate Marvel, who moved to second on a sacrifice from sophomore Whitney Lowe. The next two batters, seniors Heather Hamasaki and Lauren Haney walked to load the bases. After striking out senior Whitney Schenbeck, Stauffer induced a slow comebacker of the bat of senior Mendy Martin, but Stauffer threw wild to first, allowing the Mountain Hawks to take a 2-0 lead.
Lehigh added a third run in the second, when Lowe singled with two outs and then came around to score on a double from Hamasaki.
In the fourth inning, Lehigh tacked on its final run when sophomore Alisha Gonzales laced a two-out double. Kristyn Kubiak pinch ran for Gonzales, and raced around to score from second base on an infield hit by Marvel.
Sweeney was dominant in the circle en route to her 19th victory of the season (19-5). After allowing a single to Army third baseman Erin McClain to lead off the second inning, Sweeney retired the next nine batters she faced, including eight consecutive via the strikeout.
Marvel and Hamasaki were each 2-for-2 with an RBI for Lehigh, which totaled seven hits on the afternoon.
Army falls to 15-35 and will face
The Mountain Hawks will face Colgate at 11:00 am Friday at Kaufman Field with the winner advancing directly to the championship round on Saturday. The game will be broadcast online at lehighsports.com beginning at 10:45 am with the pregame show featuring the Fran Troyan Report.
