Sunday, March 5
Huntington, WV
10 a.m.
Lehigh University
1-4
4
at
6
Marshall University
4-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Lehigh
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
2
0
4
7
0
Marshall
0
3
0
0
2
1
0
0
X
6
7
0
Marshall Rallies Back in Game Two to Take Series From Lehigh
3/5/2017 6:06:00 PM | Baseball
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – After trailing through seven innings in game two of Sunday's doubleheader, Marshall hung six runs on the board in the eighth to pull of the comeback win over Lehigh. The Thundering Herd posted a 6-4 win earlier on Sunday as they swept the three-game weekend series from the Mountain Hawks.
David Young led Lehigh (1-5) offensively on Sunday as he went a combined 4-for-8 with two RBI and two runs scored. The senior posted two extra-base hits on the day with a home run and a double in game one of the twin bill. Connor Donovan and Anthony Rinaldi also went deep for Lehigh as the Mountain Hawks posted three homers on the day, compared to no home runs by Marshall (5-5).
Out the 18 hits surrendered to Marshall on Sunday, only five were of the extra-base variety as the Lehigh pitching staff managed to limit the number of quality hits by the Herd. Mark Washington started game one and went four innings. He allowed three runs on three hits and compiled four strikeouts as he ended on back-to-back scoreless innings. Levi Stoudt earned the start in game two and tossed five complete innings. The freshman surrendered five hits and three runs, all of which were unearned, to go with a strikeout and two walks.
"I was pleased with the pitching as a whole this weekend. I thought we did a good job of not giving up a lot of solid contact, but we had some unfortunate breaks with balls hit with weak contact finding the holes in the defense," said head coach Sean Leary. "I felt Levi Stoudt had good stuff working again and was able to not give up any earned runs. We had some breakdowns defensively and it is hard to win close games against good teams when you do not execute defensively."
Free bases fueled Marshall's early lead in game one. The Herd drew walks to set up two separate scoring plays in the second inning and moved runners into scoring positions with a wild pitch and a passed ball in the frame. Marshall capitalized on both opportunities with RBI singles to take a 3-0 lead through the second.
Lehigh trailed through the first seven innings, but remained persistent. The Mountain Hawks made a push in the eighth inning by putting two runs on the board on consecutive RBI doubles by Young and Patrick Donnelly to trail 6-4 heading into the ninth. Tyler Ratliff came in to close things out for Marshall in the ninth and recorded two strikeouts before getting a Jeff Shanfeldt fly out to end the game and record his second save of the season.
The Mountain Hawks steadily built up a lead in game two, starting with a solo shot by Donovan in the second inning to give Lehigh its first lead of the weekend. Lehigh tacked on another run when Stephen Fitzgerald advanced home on a wild pitch. John Scarr started to break the lead open for LU in the fifth with a two-RBI double that put Lehigh ahead 4-0. The Herd answered back in the bottom of the inning with a three-run double to pull within one run of the lead.
The two teams traded runs again in the sixth, highlighted by a solo home run by Rinaldi as Lehigh held a 5-4 lead through six. Despite trailing through the first seven innings, Marshall held Lehigh in check and overcame the deficit in the eighth inning as the Herd poured on six runs on five hits with one Lehigh error. The Mountain Hawks managed to get one run back in the ninth, but left two runners stranded as they only recorded one hit in the top half of the ninth.
With the two wins today, Marshall improves to 6-0 all-time against Leigh after posting three-game sweeps in consecutive seasons. The Mountain Hawks will look to rebound and get a win on Wednesday when they travel to Coppin State for a single game with a 3 p.m. start time. Lehigh is 19-1 all-time against the Eagles.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Shapiro (1-1)
L: Washington, Mark (1-1)
S: Ratliff (2)
Batting:
2B: Young, David 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Rinaldi, Anthony 2
HR: Young, David 1
RBI: Bleming, James 1 ; Young, David 2 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nalesnik, Jacen 1 ; Young, David 2 ; Rinaldi, Anthony 1
HBP: Nalesnik, Jacen 1
Batting:
2B: Finfer 1 ; Ratliff 1
RBI: Ray 1 ; Finfer 1 ; Ratliff 1 ; Garrastazu 2 ; Valenti 1
SH: Ray 1 ; Garrastazu 1
SF: Valenti 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Finfer 1 ; Rodriguez 1 ; Hanon 2 ; Garrastazu 1 ; Valenti 1
SB: Garrastazu 1 ; Zban 1
CS: Ray 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
3B
/ Baseball
1B/P
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballIF
/ BaseballBaseball vs. Coppin State
Tuesday, April 29
Baseball vs. Penn
Wednesday, March 19
Baseball vs. UAlbany
Sunday, March 16
Season Preview Baseball
Thursday, February 13
