Lehigh University
Lafayette
Mountain Hawks split Sunday doubleheader with Lafayette
4/10/2011 11:01:00 PM | Baseball
EASTON, Pa. – The Lehigh baseball team (18-14, 3-5) earned a split on Sunday afternoon against the Lafayette Leopards. Lehigh earned a 9-2 game one victory while Lafayette took the second game, 8-3. Lehigh splits the four-game series with the Leopards for the weekend.
In game one, Brandon Sady earned the start for the Mountain Hawks and was nothing but brilliant. In five innings of work, Sady earned the win and gave up just two runs and three hits while striking out five batters. Dan Ciccone came in to relieve Sady and was flawless as well, pitching two innings of scoreless ball.
Lehigh collected 13 hits as a team and had four players that had multi-hit games. Brendan Pifer had another big game for the Mountain Hawks, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Billy Goldman, Andy Russell and Logan Winchester each had two hits for Lehigh. Goldman belted his second homerun as in many days.
The Mountain Hawks were the first ones to strike, as Casey Turner got things going in the second inning when he walked and then stole second base. Then with two outs, Pifer came up big with an RBI single to score Turner, giving the Brown and White a 1-0 lead.
Lehigh's big inning came in the third. Goldman had a leadoff single to start the inning and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Russell followed with a walk and Kevin Mihalik had an RBI single to score Goldman. Winchester and Borden continued the run with back-to-back RBI singles, upping the Lehigh lead to 4-0. Lehigh capped off a five-run inning when McGaheran had a sac-fly RBI, which gave the Mountain Hawks a 6-0 lead after three.
Lafayette added two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but that is all they would be able to do. The Mountain Hawks responded with three runs in the top half of the last inning. Brendan McGaheran drove in Pifer on an RBI single. Goldman then delivered the big two-run blast that gave Lehigh a 9-2 lead. Ciccone shut the door to seal the game one victory.
In game two, the Leopards were strong from the get go and never looked back in an 8-3 victory, as they had an early 6-0 lead after just two innings. Winchester had another multi-hit game for the Mountain Hawks in the loss.
Lafayette was on fire, as the Leopards scored four runs in the first inning, followed by two runs in the second inning to jump out to a 6-0 lead. The Mountain Hawks were held hitless through three innings, but Lehigh capitalized in the fourth inning when Mihalik nailed a solo homerun to put the Brown and White on the board.
After Lafayette scored a run in the bottom of the fourth, Lehigh added two more runs in response to shrink the Leopard lead to 7-3. Turner led off the fifth with a double and scored on a Pifer RBI double. Pifer then scored on a Goldman sacrifice fly. That would not be enough though for Lehigh, as Lafayette escaped game two with an 8-3 victory.
Lehigh will be back in action this Tuesday on the Goodman Campus as it plays host to Saint Joseph's at 3:30.
