Ratner Pitches Lehigh to Senior Day Split with League-Leading Navy

Saturday, April 28

Bethlehem, Pa.

12:05 p.m.

Lehigh University

17-24, 6-12

United States Naval Academy

31-12, 15-7

NAVY

Lehigh

Ratner Pitches Lehigh to Senior Day Split with League-Leading Navy

4/28/2018 5:52:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh began its final home stand of the season with a Saturday doubleheader split with Navy on Senior Day. The Mountain Hawks took game one, 1-0, behind a dominating pitching performance by Matt Ratner. The Mids responded with clutch hitting late in game two to earn a 6-1 victory in the night cap.

Ratner took the ball to start game one for Lehigh (17-25, 6-13 PL) and put together a lights-out performance. The senior tossed 5.0 perfect innings before the Mids (32-12, 16-7 PL) spoiled the no-hitter and perfect game with a lead-off double in the sixth. Ratner did not let the hit disrupt his rhythm as he managed to retire the next six batters in order to preserve the victory for Lehigh.

The Lehigh righty finished the game with four strikeouts, no walks, no hit batters and just one hit allowed against 22 batters faced in his first complete-game appearance. He improves to 2-0 on the season after making his third start of the year.

Game one set the record for the fastest game in Patriot League play this season at one hour and 21 minutes. The pace of play had was a result of the outstanding pitching performances by both teams as Navy went with ace Noah Song. The junior tossed 6.0 innings, giving up just one run on four hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

In a game that had no margin for error due to the stellar pitching performances, Lehigh's run in the second inning held up as the difference. Tony Gallo got things going with a lead-off double to begin the inning. Following a pop-up for the first out of the frame, freshman Quinn McKenna came through with a huge single to right field which allowed Gallo to score from second.

Following the Lehigh run, Song went on to retire the next 11-straight batters and 14 of the last 16 batters he faced. Ratner held the Mids to their lowest hit total of the season and their first shutout since their season opener on February 16.

(4/28/2018) Baseball vs Navy (Senior Day)

Both teams had multiple bend-but-don't break moments to start game two as both offenses put runners on, but the defenses countered with key plays. Senior James Bleming had multiple strong plays defensively, including one in the third inning where he fielded a slow hopper deep in the hole and gunned the runner out at first for the final out of the inning and left two runners stranded with the scored tied, 0-0.

After Lehigh took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, the defense came up big once again in the fifth. Senior right fielder Ryan Bonshak laid out and caught a deep fly ball on the warning track to save a hit. Bleming also came up with a big play in the fifth to preserve a hit as he fully extended to snare a tailing line drive up the middle to get Lehigh out of the inning unscathed.

The Mids squeaked out runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to take a 2-1 lead. Then, the Navy power hitters, Christian Hodge and Evan Lowery, hit back-to-back home runs to catapult the Mids into a 4-1 lead.

Navy's Colin Brady stifled the Lehigh bats down the stretch to preserve the lead and the eventual victory. The submarine right-hander was perfect in his 3.2 innings of relief work as he did not allow a walk or a hit against the 11 batters he faced.

Lehigh will return to action on Sunday for its final home games of the season with a doubleheader against Bucknell starting at 12 p.m.