Lehigh University
St. Bonaventure
Mountain Hawks squander strong offensive day
3/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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DAVENPORT, Fla. – Despite a strong offensive effort, the Lehigh baseball team fell short in both of its games Monday, as it lost to St. Bonaventure 13-8 in 12 innings and Fairfield 12-6 on day two of the RussMatt Invitational. The Mountain Hawks had a total of 28 hits between the two games, but a few timely errors and 24 runners left on base ended up costing the Brown and White. The Bonnies were able to pull ahead with five runs in the top of the 12th and a seven-run sixth inning put away the game for the Stags. With the two losses Lehigh falls to 1-6 on the season, while St. Bonaventure and Fairfeild improve to 3-6 and 4-2, respectively.
“In the first game we left 10 runners on in the first six innings, but we were still up late and couldn’t close it out,” head coach Sean Leary said. “In the second game I thought our offense put runners on-base pretty easily all day, but our pitching and defense let us down.”
In game one the Bonnies jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first four innings, but Lehigh responded with seven runs over the next inning and a half to take an 8-5 lead. Junior Logan Winchester got things going offensively as he knocked in his classmate Chad Warga. With the bases loaded, junior Sean Killeen knocked in two-runs to finish off the fourth inning. The Mountain Hawks picked it right back up in the bottom of the fifth as Winchester doubled in two-runs. Junior Kevin Mihaik and Killeen each had RBIs to give the Brown and White eight runs.
St. Bonaventure was able to get three runs over the final four innings to send the game to extras. After 1.2 scoreless innings on the mound for Killeen, the Bonnies finally got to him in the top of the 12th as they scored five runs and would go onto close out the game in the bottom of the inning.
Killeen was hit for the loss, but had a great day offensively as he finished with three hits and three RBIs. Winchester matched his effort with equal marks.
Freshman Robert Nalepa pitched six scoreless innings to pick up his first career collegiate win for the Bonnies.
In the second game, Lehigh jumped out to a 5-2 lead through the first two innings. After three scoreless innings the Mountain Hawks added to their lead in the top of the sixth with a run, but Fairfield found its offense in the bottom half of the inning. The Stags exploded for seven runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take a 12-6 lead.
The Brown and White failed to score again as Kevin Fico and Dan Urbanovich shut down its offense for the rest of the game. Fico earned the win for Fairfield and Urbanovich was credited with the save. Sophomore Cory Kent took the loss for the Mountain Hawks.
Mihalik led Lehigh’s offense in game two as he recorded three hits and drove in two runs.
Leary commented on the games by Winchester, Mihalik and Killeen. “All three of these guys stood out today and had very productive days at the plate. Winchester was great defensively and had some strong at-bats. Mihalik was able to get on base seven times throughout the two games.”
He continued talking about the absence of juniors Andrew Russell and Brendan McGaheran. “Both players were out with minor injuries. They’re both offensive stalwarts and it really changed our approach without them in the lineup. I thought offensively we had good games, but we missed their presence in the field.”
The Mountain Hawks will face Miami (Ohio) tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. on day three of the RussMatt Invitational in Davenport, Fla.
