Longwood Takes Two From Lehigh On Saturday Including Walk Off Win

Saturday, May 6

Farmville, VA

1 p.m.

Lehigh University

21-27

Longwood University

14-30

Lehigh

Longwood

Longwood Takes Two From Lehigh On Saturday Including Walk Off Win

5/6/2017 9:11:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood posted a 3-2 walk-off win in game one of Saturday's twin bill before holding off a late rally by Lehigh in game two for a 7-4 victory to clinch the weekend's three-game set. The two teams will return to Buddy Bolding Stadium to finish out the series in what will be Lehigh's final game of the 2017 season.

The Mountain Hawks (21-28) and Lancers (15-30) entered the ninth inning of game one tied 2-2. Other than a Jeff Shanfeldt single, Lehigh went away quickly and quietly in the top half of the ninth, setting up Longwood for a chance to win the game in the bottom half.

The Lancers quickly had a runner in scoring position following a one out double by Ryan Shull. Lehigh elected to intentionally walk designated hitter Alex Lewis, who was 0-for-3 on the day, to get to Nate Blakeney, who was also 0-for-3 to that point. Unfortunately for Lehigh, Blakeney broke out of his slump with a high-chopped singled that was too high for James Bleming and propelled Longwood to the game one walk-off win.

Chris Butera took the loss for Lehigh as he entered to start the seventh and tossed 2.1 innings. The righty allowed just the one run and a total of only three hits with two strikeouts. Connor Donovan made the final start of his career on the mound and went 6.0 innings. The senior righty surrendered two earned runs on just three hits with four walks and four strikeouts. The triple he allowed in the first inning was the only extra-base hit surrendered all day and just the fourth extra-base hit he has allowed all season.

The Lehigh offense was limited to just two runs on six total hits in game one. Both totals are single-game lows for a non-league game since a 2-1 loss with six hits against La Salle on March 29.

Both teams got off to another slow offensive start in game two. The Lancers bucked the trend by scoring three runs in the in the third on three hits and received help from two Lehigh errors. Longwood continued to silence the Lehigh bats and tacked on four more runs through the fifth and sixth innings to take a comfortable 7-0 lead.

Lehigh finally broke the scoreless drought and put a little heat on the Lancers by hanging three runs on the board in the eighth inning. David Young began the eighth-inning rally with a leadoff double and later scored when Jacen Nalesnik reached on a fielder's choice. Donovan and John Scarr each posted RBI hits towards the end of the inning to bring home some of the ducks still left on the pond.

Lehigh held serve threw the bottom of the eighth inning and trailed by four heading into the ninth. The Mountain Hawks loaded the bases on just one hit in the ninth and forced a Longwood pitching change with no outs recorded.

Lehigh had the heat turned up on Longwood with the bases and no outs, but that pressure soon fizzled as James Bleming was called out on a questionable check swing for the third strike of his at bat. Nalesnik managed to get a run in as he hit a ball up the middle and managed to beat out the throw to first to prevent a double play. All of a sudden, Lehigh went form no outs to two outs, but still had runners threatening. With the tying run at the plate, Donnelly put a charge into a ball with a long fly to left field, but unfortunately the fly ball landed harmlessly into the glove of left fielder Antuwan Tucker for the final out of the game.

Jason Reynolds suffered the tough loss on the mound as he started and tossed 5.0 innings. The freshman allowed just three earned runs as he surrendered five hits with three walks to six strikeouts. The rookie righty averaged over five strikeouts in his last four starts, while averaging just 1.5 walks during that same span.

Young led Lehigh with three hits on the day as he finished 3-for-8. Nalesnik finished as the RBI leader with three after recording just one hit on the day. Young and Donnelly tied for the team lead with four total bases each on the day.

The Mountain Hawks will cap off the 2017 season on Sunday in a single-game set with Longwood. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. The game will be covered live for free on the Big South Network.