Wednesday, March 29
Bethlehem, PA
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
7-13
1
vs
2
La Salle University
3-18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
La Salle
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
7
1
Lehigh
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
6
2
La Salle Edges Lehigh in Opening Round of Liberty Bell Classic
3/29/2017 9:18:00 PM | Baseball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Mountain Hawks saw their four-game home win streak come to close on Wednesday afternoon in a 2-1 loss to La Salle in the opening round of the Liberty Bell Classic.
The teams traded blows in the first inning, scoring one run each. The Explorers (3-18) began with back-to-back singles through the hole on the left side, eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly to left field. Lehigh (7-13) responded in the bottom of frame when Patrick Donnelly poked a single to left center to drive in Jacen Nalesnik from third, who reached on a double to left center field.
With one out recorded in the top of the fourth, La Salle's Ben Faso reached on a fielding error. Two more Explorers reached base before Zach Wright struck out swinging for the second out. Ryan Guckin stepped up with two outs and singled through the right side to score Faso for the go-ahead run. Chase Arnold tried to tack on another run when he attempted to score from second, but was thrown out at the plate by Nalesnik. Faso's run would eventually hold up as the winning run.
After the first inning, Lehigh had runners in scoring position in five of the final eight innings, but could not find the breaks necessary to get another across. La Salle produced a strikeout, two ground outs and two fly outs to end each of the five Lehigh scoring threats.
The Lehigh pitching and defense held up its end of the bargain by limiting the damage done by the La Salle offense as the Explorers put only one runner in scoring position outside of the first and fourth innings. Lehigh catcher Jeff Shanfeldt went 2-for-2 on runners attempting to steal on him and the Lehigh pitching staff did not surrender a single extra-base hit for the first time this season.
La Salle's Jorge Jimenez collected the win as he entered and recorded the final out of the fifth inning. Jimenez tossed 2.1 innings and surrendered just one hit with no runs, no walks and no strikeouts. Sam Ashey had a quality start, but suffered the loss for Lehigh as he went 5.2 innings and surrendered just one earned run on five hits with a season-high six strikeouts.
Matt Hand threw 1.2 scoreless innings in relief and surrendered just one hit. Ethan Frohman tossed 2.0 shutout relief innings and also allowed one hit to go with one strikeout.
Today marked the fourth time this season the Mountain Hawks have allowed three or less runs in a loss as they fall to 1-2 in one-run games. Lehigh has now been held under its season average of 8.9 hits per game 10 times this season and has held its opponent to less than 10 hits in a game for the ninth time.
Lehigh will face Rider in the next round of the Liberty Bell Classic as the Broncs suffered a 21-6 setback at Delaware on Wednesday.
The Mountain Hawks will return to action on Thursday when they host Saint Peter's at J. David Walker at 3 p.m.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: JIMENEZ, Jorge (1-1)
L: Ashey, Sam (0-1)
S: CONSTANTINI, Austin (1)
Batting:
RBI: FASO, Ben 1 ; GUCKIN, Ryan 1
SH: MCGOWAN, Kevin 1 ; GUCKIN, Ryan 1
SF: FASO, Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: CONSTANTINI, Austin 1 ; FASO, Ben 1
CS: FASO, Ben 1 ; RIVERA,Yan Carlo 1
PO: JENKINS, Niko 1
Batting:
2B: Nalesnik, Jacen 2 ; Young, David 1
RBI: Donnelly, Patrick 1
SH: Rinaldi, Anthony 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nalesnik, Jacen 1
SB: Bleming, James 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 2
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
3B
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