Eighth Inning Rally Lifts Longwood to Victory in Lehigh Season Finale

Sunday, May 7

Farmville, VA

1 p.m.

Lehigh University

21-29

Longwood University

16-30

Lehigh

Longwood

Eighth Inning Rally Lifts Longwood to Victory in Lehigh Season Finale

5/7/2017 5:22:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

FARMVILLE, Va. – A five-run eighth inning for Longwood broke a 7-7 tie and ultimately lifted the Lancers to victory in a back-and-forth battle with Lehigh on Sunday at Buddy Bolding Stadium. Longwood used late-game scoring to capture victories in two of the three games on the weekend, including a walk-off win in game one, to sweep the Mountain Hawks in their final three games of the 2017 season.

In what was a closely contested battle all game long and an offense rich contest, the Lancers (16-30) broke a tie game in the eighth with the biggest offensive inning for either team on the day. Longwood scored a game-high five runs on four hits, highlighted by Michael Orsinksi's two-run double with no outs to start the game-winning scoring rally.

The game had all the makings for an offensive battle after the two teams combined for seven runs in the first inning. Lehigh (21-29) posted three runs to begin the first inning, highlighted by a two-run single by John Scarr after Patrick Donnelly posted a RBI on a sacrifice fly for the game's first run.

The Lancers responded with four runs on three hits and were aided by two Lehigh errors in the bottom of the first. Longwood took the lead on a Mountain Hawk throwing error following a Lancer single.

Lehigh battled back and scored runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 7-6 lead before Longwood tied the game in the seventh. After the first inning, Lehigh lacked another big offensive inning to break away from the Lancers and instead, Longwood posted another big inning to seal the win.

David Young, Jacen Nalesnik, Scarr and Ryan Malloy all finished tied for the team lead with two hits on the day, while Scarr led with two RBI. James Bleming led the squad with two runs scored.

Sunday marked the end of the season for Lehigh as a team and also the end of the careers for the Mountain Hawk seniors. The senior class of 2017 posted 96 wins throughout the last four years, which is the third-most in program history in a four-year span. The seniors helped deliver the program its second Patriot League Championship when they won it all in 2015. The group has accumulated four All-Patriot League selections with two Academic All-Patriot League honorees prior to 2017 and will look to add more accolades in the coming weeks.