Lehigh earns No. 3 seed in PL Tournament as Garzillo breaks career hits record Sunday at Army

Sunday, May 1

West Point, N.Y.

3:15 p.m.

Lehigh University

21-27, 9-10

Army West Point

16-30, 5-14

Lehigh

Army West Point

Lehigh earns No. 3 seed in PL Tournament as Garzillo breaks career hits record Sunday at Army

5/1/2016 6:17:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh baseball team fell 5-2 in a single game at Army Sunday afternoon that served as the series finale in a rain-shortened set. Results from other games around the Patriot League allowed Lehigh to lock up the No. 3 seed in the Patriot League Tournament before Sunday's game at Army began. The Black Knights were able to snap Lehigh's seven-game win streak as the Mountain Hawks move to 21-27 overall and 9-10 in league action, while Army improves to 16-30 overall and 6-13 against league foes.

The final game of the Lehigh-Army series has been cancelled and will not be made up since it has no effect on Patriot League Tournament seeding. Due to Sunday's results around the Patriot League, third-seeded Lehigh will head to No. 2 Holy Cross for the best-of-three Patriot League Semifinal series on May 14-15. Navy nailed down the top seed and Bucknell will be the No. 4 seed. The winner of the two semifinals series will advance to the Patriot League Championship on May 21-22 at the site of the highest remaining seed.

Senior Mike Garzillo broke the Lehigh career hits record with his second knock of Sunday's single game as he roped a triple to record the 230th hit of his career. The previous record of 229 career hits was held by Joe Ercolano '08. Garzillo now holds Lehigh career records in hits (230), games played (199), at bats (722) and doubles (58).

Following a scoreless first inning, Lehigh was able to get on the board in the top of the second as sophomore Ryan Bonshak drew a one-out walk before moving to second on a groundout and scoring on an RBI single to right center from senior Anthony Rinaldi to give Lehigh a 1-0 lead.

The Black Knights countered with three runs in the bottom of the second thanks to three hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly to take a 3-1 lead. Another Army sacrifice fly ran the score to 4-1 in the bottom of the third before an RBI hit by pitch in the fifth inning gave the Black Knights a 5-1 advantage. Garzillo broke the Lehigh career hits record with a triple in the top of the fifth inning, but the Mountain Hawks weren't able to get much more off Army starter Daniel Burggraaf as the freshman hurled six strong frames. A two-out double from James Bleming scored Rinaldi in the top of the seventh, but Lehigh wasn't able to rally any further as Army walked away with a 5-2 victory.

Lehigh sophomore starter Sam Ashey suffered the loss after allowing five earned runs on five hits with a strikeout in four innings of work.

The Mountain Hawks return to action Wednesday with a 3 p.m. contest at Saint Peter's.

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