Mountain Hawks drop two to Army

Saturday, March 28

Lewisburg, Pa.

12 p.m.

Lehigh University

4-14, 0

Army

11-0, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Army	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	5	7	1
Lehigh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Army	0	0	0	1	1	2	1	0	2	7	9	2
Lehigh	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	10	0

3/28/2015 6:47:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Lehigh baseball team's offense struggled in a pair of Saturday losses to Army in the opening day of Patriot League play Saturday at Bucknell's Depew Field. The Black Knights earned a 5-0 win the opening game before picking up a 7-2 victory in the nightcap.

Junior Mike Garzillo and senior Connor Faust both went 3-for-7 at the plate in the two games combined, while Garzillo also drove in one of Lehigh's two runs. Senior Justin Pacchioli finished the day 2-for-5 with the other RBI.

Both teams had chances to score within the first three innings of the day's opening game, a seven-inning contest, but neither could capitalize until the Black Knights put up four runs in the fourth inning. A pair of Lehigh errors helped score the first three runs following a Ben Smith single and Jon Rosoff fielder's choice. A sacrifice fly from Jacob Page added the fourth run for Army as the Black Knights took a 4-0 lead through three and a half.

The Mountain Hawks threatened in the bottom half of the inning when Garzillo led off with a single before an Army error and bunt single from sophomore Jacen Nalesnik loaded the bases with no outs, but Black Knights starter Alex Robinett retired the next three Lehigh batters to end the threat.

Army added another run in the top of the sixth when Ben Smith tripled home Harold Earls, but junior reliever Kevin Boswick stranded two Black Knights in scoring position with a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage. Lehigh wasn't able to get anything going offensively, as Robinett finished out the complete-game shutout to earn the win.

Lehigh senior starter J.R. Edwards suffered the loss and finished with a line of four runs, only one of which was earned, on five hits in 3.2 innings of work. Boswick held the Black Knights to two hits in 3.1 innings.

Senior starter Nick Macaione held Army to just two hits through the first three innings of the day's second game, a nine-inning contest. The Black Knights scored the first run in the top of the fourth inning when a Jacob Page single scored Jon Rosoff, but Macaione limited the damage and stranded three Black Knights on base as Army grabbed a 1-0 lead. Army added another run in the following inning before a two-run single from Brandon Lee in the sixth inning made it 4-0 Black Knights.

Lehigh got a run back in the bottom half of the sixth when Pacchioli led off with a triple and was then brought home by a single up the middle off the bat of Garzillo. Army responded right away with a run in the following frame before taking a 7-1 lead in the eighth. An RBI single from Pacchioli scored Faust in the ninth, but it was too little too late as Army grabbed the 7-2 win.

Macaione suffered the loss and finished with a line of two runs on five hits with five strikeouts in five innings of work. Sophomore Connor Donovan fired the final four innings of the game. Army starter Jeremy Mortensen earned the victory.

Lehigh and Army wrap up their four-game series Sunday with a 12 p.m. doubleheader at Bucknell's Depew Field.