Lehigh University
Saint Joseph's
Lehigh rallies past St. Joe's to earn Sunday split
3/22/2009 5:00:00 PM | Softball
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh capped off a busy weekend on the diamond by splitting a pair of games Sunday at Kaufman Field. The Mountain Hawks pitching was hit hard in game one as Boston University handed the Brown and White a 10-3 setback, but Lehigh rallied in game two, taking advantage of five Saint Joseph’s errors and scoring an unearned run in its final at-bat to down the Hawks 3-2. With the split, Lehigh moves to 11-13 on the season.
Freshman Audra Wood led off the bottom of the seventh inning by reaching on an error by Saint Joseph’s shortstop Dana Bieniek. Wood stole second base and moved to third on a ground out. With two outs, senior Lisa Sweeney hit a ground ball to Bieniek, who threw wide to first base. First baseman Sue Lebow could not hang on to the bag or the ball and Wood came home with the winning run, which snapped Lehigh’s five game losing streak.
The Mountain Hawks earned the victory despite being out-hit 7-2. Saint Joseph’s raced to a 2-0 lead on single runs in the first and third innings. Lehigh answered with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the third. Senior Whitney Lowe reached on an error and eventually scored on a groundout by Alisha Gonzales. Freshman Julie Fernandez then tied the game when she scored on a wild pitch.
After rough outings earlier in the day, the Lehigh pitching staff bounced back against Saint Joseph’s, keeping the Mountain Hawks in the game with seven innings of two run, seven hit softball. Sweeney went the first five innings in the circle before giving way to junior Tiffany Curtis, who retired six of the seven batters she faced to earn the victory as she moves to 5-4 on the season.
Dani Gonzales, the third pitcher of the game for the Hawks, was saddled with the loss.
In Sunday’s first game Boston University’s offense erupted for 10 runs on 12 hits. The Terriers scored in each of the first four innings, building a 9-2 lead in the process. Caitlin Rentler put Boston University in front with a three run home run off Sweeney in the top of the first. Sweeney tried to answer with a two-run home run to left of her own in the bottom of the first, her fourth of the season and the 20th of her career.
The Terriers extended their lead with an RBI double from April Setterlund in the second inning and a two-run blast by Nora Militz in the third. Boston University chased Sweeney from the circle with three runs in the fourth, and added a single run in the sixth to take a 10-2 lead, but Lowe prevented a run-rule loss for Lehigh by drilling a home run to right field, the first of her career.
Sweeney suffered her seventh loss of the season as she was charged with eight runs (six earned) on seven hits in 3.1 innings of work. She walked two and struck out seven before giving way to Curtis and sophomore Bri Gaumer who combined to allow two runs on five hits the rest of the way.
The Mountain Hawks return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Penn for a doubleheader in the final tune-up before Patriot League play begins next weekend. First pitch for game one is set for 3 p.m. from Philadelphia.
