Sunday, April 23
Easton, PA
12 p.m.
Lehigh University
15-24, 0
5
at
1
Lafayette College
3-40, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Lehigh
0
0
2
0
2
1
0
5
8
1
Lafayette
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
4
0
Lehigh Sweeps Rivalry Series From Lafayette for Second Straight Season
4/23/2017 7:55:00 PM | Baseball
EASTON, Pa. – The Mountain Hawks clinched the series over Lafayette with a 5-1 victory in game on Sunday and then secured the series sweep with a 12-2 win in game two. Lehigh has now won the season series against Lafayette in each of the last four seasons and has posted sweeps in each of the last two years.
Lehigh (16-24, 6-10) began the day with another strong starting pitching effort from one of the league's top arms in Levi Stoudt in game one. The freshman went the full seven innings as he allowed just one earned run on four hits with four strikeouts. The Leopards (3-41, 1-15) left eight runners stranded in game one and did not record an extra-base hit off of Stoudt.
Another freshman arm helped lead LU to victory in game two. Matt Hand entered in the third inning and tossed 5.1 innings to pick up his first career win in his 11th relief appearance this season. The righty allowed just one run on five hits with a season-high five strikeouts.
Leadoff batter Chris Kersey was the catalyst offensively in game one as he went 1-for2 with a walk and posted two RBI with two runs scored. The junior opened the scoring on the day with a solo home run to left center and closed out the scoring in game one with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.
The Mountain Hawks held a 4-0 lead six innings of play in game two and would have been fine with that run production, but decided to tack on eight more runs in the final three innings. Seniors Jacen Nalesnik and Patrick Donnelly combined for three runs in the ninth on back-to-back homers. Nalesnik improves his league-leading total to 11 on the season.
Nalesnik and Donnelly both had big days offensively to close out the series. Nalesnik went a combined 4-for-9 with four runs scored and two RBI. Donnelly also went 4-for-9 with three runs three RBI.
In addition to the Nalesnik and Donnelly, fellow seniors Connor Donovan, Anthony Rinaldi, John Scarr and David Young all made significant contributions offensively. The senior class scored 13 of the team's 17 runs and accounted for 18 of the 23 hits on Sunday. The seniors finish their careers with a record of 14-2 against Lafayette and end on a nine-game win streak over the Leopards.
After the weekend sweep, the Mountain Hawks have not lost a regular season series to Lafayette since dropping three of the four games in the 2009 series. Additionally, the last time LU fell in a four-game set in Easton was in 2007.
Lehigh gained considerable ground in the Patriot League postseason hunt with four wins, combined with three losses by Army West Point. LU sits two games back from the Black Knights for the last playoff spot, setting up a do or die situation next weekend when the two teams meet to close out the regular season league slate. Lehigh will need to win at least three games over Army in order to reach the Patriot League postseason for a fourth year in a row.
Prior to big weekend showdown with Army, the Mountain Hawks will be at home for a two-game set in a non-league matchup against Maryland Eastern Shore on Wednesday. Start time for game one is 1 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Stoudt, Levi (2-5)
L: Kreyer, Brett (0-6)
Batting:
2B: Nalesnik, Jacen 1
HR: Kersey, Chris 1
RBI: Kersey, Chris 2 ; Donnelly, Patrick 2 ; Young, David 1
SH: Bleming, James 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Hand, Matt 1
SF: Kersey, Chris 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kersey, Chris 2 ; Nalesnik, Jacen 2 ; Rinaldi, Anthony 1
Batting:
RBI: Durrah, Trey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Selsor, John 1
SB: Nelson, Patrick 1 ; Bubb, Quentin 1
HBP: Selsor, John 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
2
H
1
RBI
2
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
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