Saturday, April 30
West Point, N.Y.
1 p.m.
Lehigh University
20-26, 8-9
7
at
4
Army West Point
15-29, 5-12
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3
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5
6
7
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E
Lehigh
4
1
0
2
0
0
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7
13
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Army West Point
0
3
1
0
0
0
0
4
4
3
Lehigh clinches postseason berth with Saturday sweep at Army
4/30/2016 7:21:00 PM | Baseball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Lehigh baseball team's pitching staff protected early leads to guide the Mountain Hawks to 7-4 and 3-1 victories in a doubleheader sweep at Army Saturday. The wins officially secure Lehigh's third-straight trip to the Patriot League Tournament. Lehigh has now won seven-straight games to move to 21-26 overall and 9-9 in league play, while Army falls to 15-30 overall and 5-13 against Patriot League foes.
"Our pitching was outstanding today," said head coach Sean Leary. "We had an incredible start from Peter Moore, two tremendous closes from Kevin Boswick, and Kevin Long really battled to give us five great innings. Offensively, Mike Garzillo really set the tone in game one and we had contributions from up and down the lineup today."
Lehigh has also secured its third-straight 20-plus win season. It marks the first time the Mountain Hawks have made three consecutive trips to the postseason while capturing 20-plus wins since 2004-06. Navy and Holy Cross have already locked up the top two seeds in the Patriot League Tournament, so Lehigh will travel to one of the two for the Patriot League Semifinals on May 14-15. After Saturday's results around the league, Lehigh sits in third place in the league standings and holds a two-game lead on fourth-place Bucknell (7-11 PL). With one more win or one Bison loss, the Mountain Hawks will clinch the No. 3 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.
"The team has really stayed even-keeled," said Leary. "When we were struggling, they never lost faith in our system and were able to battle back to get us into this position. Right now they realize they need to keep grinding and working. It's a testament to our seniors and their leadership."
The Mountain Hawks pitchers allowed just eight hits through 16 innings of play as starters Kevin Long and Peter Moore earned wins, while senior Kevin Boswick secured a pair of saves. Moore fired eight one-run innings with eight strikeouts in the nightcap, while Long threw five strong frames in the opener. Boswick hurled three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with four strikeouts, in the two games combined.
Senior Mike Garzillo recorded four RBI in Lehigh's 7-4 win in the series opener, including a three-run home run that gave Lehigh an early lead in the top of the first inning. Senior Mackey Price and junior Patrick Donnelly also knocked in a run apiece. Junior David Young went 4-for-7 at the plate in the two games combined, while Donnelly and Garzillo tallied three hits apiece.
The Mountain Hawks got on the board right away in the series opener, a seven-inning contest, as junior Jacen Nalesnik sent a leadoff single to center to open the contest before sophomore James Bleming smoked a double to right center. Garzillo then sent a three-run home run over the left center fence to give Lehigh a quick 3-0 lead. Donnelly followed with a single before sophomore Ryan Bonshak knocked a two-out single to right and Donnelly moved to third before scoring on an Army fielding error to put the Mountain Hawks ahead 4-0 through the first half inning.
Long worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first to keep the Black Knights scoreless before Lehigh added on another run in the second frame. Nalesnik opened the inning with a double before Bleming singled and an RBI fielder's choice put the score at 5-0 in favor of Lehigh. The Black Knights got three runs back in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI single from Josh White and two-run double from Kris Lindner. Army pulled within 5-4 in the bottom of the third following a walk, single and RBI groundout.
Lehigh regained momentum in the top of the fourth as Garzillo sent a one-out single through the left side before scoring on an RBI double from Donnelly. An Army error on a groundball from junior John Scarr then allowed Donnelly to run home and re-extend the Mountain Hawk lead to three at 7-4. Long followed with a pair of shutdown innings before issuing a leadoff walk in the bottom of the sixth as Boswick took the mound in relief. Boswick retired the final six Army batters of the game to secure the save as Lehigh picked up a 7-4 game-one victory.
Long finished with a line of four earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts in five full innings of work. Army starter Jeremy Mortensen suffered the loss after allowing seven runs, five of which were earned, on 12 hits in 5.1 frames.
Following a scoreless first inning in the day's nightcap, a full nine-inning affair, Lehigh was able to jump in front in the top of the second inning when Young and Scarr drew walks to open the frame. Price followed with a one-out single down the left field line to score Young and put Lehigh ahead 1-0. The Black Knights then made a two-out, two-run error on a Nalesnik grounder allowing Scarr and Price to run home and extend the Mountain Hawk lead to 3-0.
The first hit Army was able to get off Moore came in the form of a solo home run from Jacob Page with one out in the bottom of the second, but Moore rebounded to strike out the final two batters of the frame and keep Lehigh's lead at 3-1 through two innings.
The Mountain Hawks weren't able to get much off a trio of Army relievers, but Moore allowed just two more hits through his eight-inning outing before giving way to Boswick in the bottom of the ninth. The Black Knights got a leadoff hit and two-out walk, but a fly out and a pair of big strikeouts secured the 3-1 Lehigh win as Boswick picked up his second save of the day.
Moore finished with a line one earned run on three hits with eight strikeouts in 8.0 innings to pick up his team-leading fifth win of the season. Army starter Tyler Giovinco was credited with the loss.
Lehigh and Army are scheduled to wrap up their four-game series with a Sunday doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Long, Kevin (2-4)
L: Mortensen, J (2-4)
S: Boswick, Kevin (3)
Batting:
2B: Nalesnik, Jacen 1 ; Bleming, James 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1
HR: Garzillo, Mike 1
RBI: Garzillo, Mike 4 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nalesnik, Jacen 2 ; Bleming, James 1 ; Garzillo, Mike 2 ; Donnelly, Patrick 2
SB: Garzillo, Mike 1
CS: Young, David 1
Batting:
2B: Lindner, K. 1
RBI: Lindner, K. 1 ; Hudgins, M. 1 ; White, J. 1
SH: Monge, D. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rosoff, J. 1 ; Hudgins, M. 1 ; Levenhagen 1 ; White, J. 1
SB: Page, J. 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
cf/lf
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
4
Players Mentioned
OF/IF
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C
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RHP
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RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
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SS
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
P/IF
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