Saturday, April 8
12PM
Lehigh University
16-15, 0
3
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Bucknell
21-6, 0
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11
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Bucknell
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Lehigh
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Lehigh Sweeps Bucknell to Take Over First Place in Patriot League
4/8/2017 6:42:00 PM | Softball
BETHLEHEM, Pa – The Lehigh softball team swept Bucknell in a pivotal doubleheader on Saturday at Leadership Park, and in doing so, leapfrogged the Bison to take over sole possession of first place in the Patriot League. Freshman Reva Alderman played hero in game one with a walk-off double in the 11th inning to give Lehigh the 3-2 victory. In game two, sophomore Emily Sorem was dominant in the circle, hurling a complete game, two-hit shutout in a 5-0 win. The Mountain Hawks now sit at 17-15 (7-1 Patriot) on the season, while Bucknell drops to 21-7 (6-2 Patriot).
Alderman finished the day with four hits and three RBIs in the two games. Fellow freshman Mary-Hannah Smith added three hits, and two RBIs and sophomores Ashley Quidolit Rabago and Brianna Gerhardt each added one RBI apiece. In total, Lehigh outhit the Bison 16-8 in the two games.
"Emily did a phenomenal job today," said head coach Fran Troyan. "She pitched a great game. She was working ahead in the count, which was a great thing, and she was making the Bucknell hitters swing at her pitch. She was in total control there and she's doing a great job. Our pitchers did a great job all day and Carolyn (Wright) caught two great games."
After a very quick first two innings in game one, Bucknell took the lead in the top of the third on a one out, two-run single by Marisa Alemany. Those were the only two runs allowed by Lehigh starter Christine Campbell, who threw 135 pitches in the 11 inning, complete-game effort. Campbell struck out six and walked two in the outing, while allowing six hits and just one earned run.
After getting just one runner on base through the first five innings, Lehigh struck for two runs to tie the game in the sixth. Sophomore Briana Gerhardt led off with a single to center field, and advanced to second two batters later on a bunt single by Nicole Yozzo. After a pop out, Smith stepped to the plate and drove a two-out, two-strike double to the wall in center field to plate Gerhardt and Yozzo and knot the game 2-2.
"Mary-Hannah does not shy away from pressure situations," Troyan said. "She goes up there and just hacks at the ball. She's a good hitter and the nice thing is that it doesn't matter the situation, she's just doing her best to get a hit."
The fast-paced game moved into extra innings, where Bucknell threatened in the ninth inning by loading the bases with one out, but Campbell induced a force out at the plate and a groundout to escape the jam. Lehigh stranded two runners on base in the ninth and 10th innings, before breaking through in the 11th.
Rabago started the rally with a one out single up the middle, and promptly stole second. Alderman then doubled over the center fielder's head allowing Rabago to come around and score the winning run.
Bucknell's Raeanne Geffert took the complete game loss by allowing 10 hits and three earned runs while striking out four.
Game two remained scoreless for 3.5 innings until Lehigh got on the board in the fourth thanks to Alderman. Bucknell pitcher Lara Bean surrendered a hit to Rabago, sandwiched around two walks to load the bases with one out. Alderman then came through with a single to left field, scoring pinch runner Jen Stoll to give the Mountain Hawks the 1-0 lead.
Lehigh padded the lead with four more runs in the fifth inning. After a walk by Ashley Cole and single by Smith, Vicky Lattanzio was hit by a pitch for the third time on the day to load the bases. Rabago then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to double the lead to 2-0. After another walk reloaded the bases, Alderman grounded an infield single to shortstop to drive in a run, and another run was allowed to score on the play following a throwing error on the Bucknell shortstop, giving the Brown and White a 4-0 lead. Gerhardt followed by knocking a single to left field to score Carolyn Wright and bring the score to 5-0.
The run support was plenty for Sorem, who went the distance allowing just two hits and three walks. She finished the game with three strikeouts to improve her record to 6-6 on the year.
"Tomorrow is the most important game of the series now," Troyan said. "We did a great job of scratching and clawing in game one to come out with a win, and then we really stayed strong in game two. I told the team they really have to work hard to finish it off because Bucknell is a strong team and they're going to come back ready to go tomorrow."
The two teams will wrap up their three-game series on Sunday at Leadership Park with the first pitch set for noon. The game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Campbell, Christine (10-4)
L: Geffert, Raeanne (12-3)
Batting:
2B: Kovac, Meghan 2
RBI: Alemany, Marisa 2
SH: Andolino, Chaylen 1 ; Martinez, Christina 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wan, Carolyn 1 ; Minneci, Maddie 1
SB: Rokos, Ryanne 1
HBP: Wan, Carolyn 2
Batting:
2B: Smith, Mary-Hannah 1 ; Alderman, Reva 1
RBI: Smith, Mary-Hannah 2 ; Alderman, Reva 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Yozzo, Nicole 1 ; Rabago, Ashley 1 ; Gerhardt, Brianna 1
SB: Rabago, Ashley 1
HBP: Lattanzio, Vicky 2
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
2
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
IF/OF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballC/IF
/ Softball
UT
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballIF
/ Softball
P
/ Softball
C
/ SoftballOF
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