Wednesday, March 30
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
9-14
6
vs
3
Saint Peter's
4-15
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Saint Peter's
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
2
0
3
6
2
Lehigh
0
0
5
0
0
0
0
1
X
6
7
0
Strong pitching leads Lehigh to 6-3 win over Saint Peter’s
3/30/2016 6:40:00 PM | Baseball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh baseball team used a five-run third inning and a dominant performance from sophomore starting pitcher Peter Moore to capture a 6-3 win over Saint Peter's Wednesday afternoon at Legacy Park in the Mountain Hawks' final tune-up before Patriot League play. Moore struck out a career-high 10 batters and surrendered just one run on four hits in 6.1 innings of work. Lehigh improves to 9-14 overall, while the Peacocks fall to 4-15.
"Pete did a good job of commanding the zone with more than one pitch and he was terrific today," said head coach Sean Leary. "One constant for us has been our defense and we played great defense again today. Pitching was the story of the day. We strung a few clutch hits together in our big inning, but once we get it going we need to put a few more runs on the board to distance ourselves going forward."
Five different Mountain Hawks knocked in runs, while all five of Lehigh's third-inning tallies were with two outs on the board. Sophomore James Bleming knocked a two-run home run to open up the scoring, before juniors Patrick Donnelly and David Young and seniors Anthony Rinaldi and Mackey Price also added RBI. In addition to Moore's strong pitching performance, freshman Ethan Frohman kept the Peacocks hitless for the final 1.2 innings of the game to secure his first career save.
Saint Peter's starter Steve Epstein kept the Mountain Hawks off the board until the third inning when junior Jacen Nalesnik drew a two-out walk before Bleming sent his second home run of the season over the left field fence to put Lehigh ahead 2-0. Senior Mike Garzillo and Donnelly followed with back-to-back doubles before Young sent an RBI single up the middle. A walk and hit by pitch loaded the bases before Price drew an RBI base on balls to give the Mountain Hawks a 5-0 advantage through three frames.
Moore struck out eight batters and limited the Peacocks to just two hits through his first five innings of work before Saint Peter's used a double and RBI single to put a run on the board in the top of the sixth. Moore collected his career-high 10th strikeout of the game against the first batter of the seventh inning before a walk ended his strong outing and freshman Cole McManimon took the bump in relief and got a groundball and strikeout to end the inning.
The Peacocks used a single, walk and two-run double from Nick Ciocco to cut Lehigh's lead to 5-3 in the top of the eighth, but Frohman came out of the bullpen to get two quick groundouts and limit the damage.
Lehigh added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth as the Saint Peter's third baseman couldn't handle a hard-hit Price grounder before Rinaldi knocked an RBI double off the right center fence to extend the Mountain Hawk advantage to 6-3. Frohman then recorded three quick outs in the top of the ninth to earn the save and cement Lehigh's third-straight victory.
Lehigh begins its quest to defend its Patriot League title this weekend when the Mountain Hawks head to Bucknell for a league-opening four-game series against the Bison.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Moore, Peter (2-3)
L: Epstein, Stephen (0-1)
S: Frohman, Ethan (1)
Batting:
2B: Kristoffersen, Jon 1 ; Ciocco, Nick 1 ; Spadaccini, James 1
RBI: Moore, Rob 1 ; Ciocco, Nick 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Puente, Gary 1 ; Kristoffersen, Jon 2
CS: Puente, Gary 1
Batting:
2B: Garzillo, Mike 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Young, David 1 ; Rinaldi, Anthony 1
HR: Bleming, James 1
RBI: Bleming, James 2 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Young, David 1 ; Price, Mackey 1 ; Rinaldi, Anthony 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nalesnik, Jacen 1 ; Bleming, James 1 ; Garzillo, Mike 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Young, David 1 ; Price, Mackey 1
HBP: Scarr, John 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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LHP
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RHP
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LHP
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OF
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OF
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