Tuesday, March 12
Harrisonburg, Va.
4 p.m.
Lehigh University
4-6
6
at
7
James Madison
11-5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
R
H
E
Lehigh
1
0
0
0
1
1
3
0
0
0
6
10
0
James Madison
0
4
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
7
12
0
Photo by: Josh Liddick
Lehigh falls in walk-off fashion to JMU Tuesday
3/12/2019 10:35:00 PM | Baseball
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Lehigh baseball fought with all they could muster on Tuesday afternoon, but the Mountain Hawks fell victim to the walk-off single, falling to James Madison in 10 innings at Veteran's Memorial Park.
Lehigh drew first in the top of the first inning when freshman Gerard Sweeney flied out to center field scoring junior Mike Maguire on a sacrifice fly to give the Mountain Hawks the first lead of the game.
JMU took over in the bottom of the second inning to take a commanding 4-1 lead against Lehigh starter Matt Svanson. Two singles and a double, as well as a sacrifice groundout brought three runs in for the Dukes.
Svanson struggled on the mound on the day, allowing four runs, all earned on four hits, walking three and striking out one batter in four innings of work. In addition, he also hit two batters.
Lehigh's offense performed well enough to get back into the game for the rest of the afternoon, especially trailing by three runs. In the fifth inning, Casey Rother reached on a fielder's choice scoring Sweeney from third base to cut the deficit to 4-2. An inning later, in the sixth, Sweeney singled to center field and scored Eric Cichocki to cut the Dukes' lead to 4-3. In the bottom half of the inning, Tre Dabney got a run back for JMU, a double off Lehigh reliever Cameron Van Hoorebeke that scored Nick Zona, extending the lead to 5-3.
The top of the seventh inning finally went Lehigh's way after the Mountain Hawks took the initial lead all the way back in the top of the first inning. On an 0-1 pitch, Matt Hand doubled down the left field line to score both Ryan Malloy and Jeff Shanfeldt to tie the ballgame 5-5. Mike Maguire's sac-fly in the same inning scored Hand to give Lehigh back the lead, up 6-5.
"Just by the way our guys performed throughout, I was extremely proud of their mental toughness and how they battled back all game," said head coach Sean Leary. "If we continue compete like we did today, I am excited about where this team can go this spring."
As Hand transitioned over from shortstop to get some time on the mound for the first time this season, the Dukes answered back with a sac-fly in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game at 6-6 and force extra innings for the first time this season.
With Hand on the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, Travis Reifsnider's single to right field brought Nick Zona in from third base as the winning run, getting the victory for James Madison in walk-off fashion.
"Despite getting the tough luck loss, Matt Hand was terrific for us in relief today," said Leary. "Van Hoorebeke did a really great job in the middle innings to make sure we were able to get back into the game."
With the loss, the Mountain Hawks drop to 4-6 on the season, having dropped two of their last three games.
Offensively, it wasn't a surprise that Patriot League Player of the Week Ryan Malloy was the player that carried the team for what seems like the 100th time in a row. Malloy went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a run scored and a walk. On the season so far, he is hitting an unconscious .486 (18-for-37), slugging .919, with an on-base percentage of .500 and an OPS of 1.419. He now has five doubles and 34 total bases in the 2019 season.
Sweeney went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored, while Matt Hand went 1-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Eric Cichocki was 2-for-4 with a walk and run and Mike Maguire, the leadoff hitter, went 1-for-5 with an RBI and a run. Jake Kochmansky, who made his right start of the season in right field, did his part by walking twice.
"Offensively, Ryan Malloy led the way once again," Leary said. "We also had some key contributions from Sweeney, Hand, Cichocki and Kochmansky.
"We had a ton of competitive at-bats against some really talented arms."
The Mountain Hawks will look to re-group again when they take on the Dukes for the second game of the pair on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The game will be live-streamed on the James Madison Facebook page as well as on MadiZone HD Sportsnet radio.
After tomorrow's game, the Mountain Hawks will head to Lynchburg, Va. where they will face the University of Lynchburg for one game before heading to Lexington to face VMI for three games Friday through Sunday.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Lehigh drew first in the top of the first inning when freshman Gerard Sweeney flied out to center field scoring junior Mike Maguire on a sacrifice fly to give the Mountain Hawks the first lead of the game.
JMU took over in the bottom of the second inning to take a commanding 4-1 lead against Lehigh starter Matt Svanson. Two singles and a double, as well as a sacrifice groundout brought three runs in for the Dukes.
Svanson struggled on the mound on the day, allowing four runs, all earned on four hits, walking three and striking out one batter in four innings of work. In addition, he also hit two batters.
Lehigh's offense performed well enough to get back into the game for the rest of the afternoon, especially trailing by three runs. In the fifth inning, Casey Rother reached on a fielder's choice scoring Sweeney from third base to cut the deficit to 4-2. An inning later, in the sixth, Sweeney singled to center field and scored Eric Cichocki to cut the Dukes' lead to 4-3. In the bottom half of the inning, Tre Dabney got a run back for JMU, a double off Lehigh reliever Cameron Van Hoorebeke that scored Nick Zona, extending the lead to 5-3.
The top of the seventh inning finally went Lehigh's way after the Mountain Hawks took the initial lead all the way back in the top of the first inning. On an 0-1 pitch, Matt Hand doubled down the left field line to score both Ryan Malloy and Jeff Shanfeldt to tie the ballgame 5-5. Mike Maguire's sac-fly in the same inning scored Hand to give Lehigh back the lead, up 6-5.
"Just by the way our guys performed throughout, I was extremely proud of their mental toughness and how they battled back all game," said head coach Sean Leary. "If we continue compete like we did today, I am excited about where this team can go this spring."
As Hand transitioned over from shortstop to get some time on the mound for the first time this season, the Dukes answered back with a sac-fly in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the game at 6-6 and force extra innings for the first time this season.
With Hand on the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, Travis Reifsnider's single to right field brought Nick Zona in from third base as the winning run, getting the victory for James Madison in walk-off fashion.
"Despite getting the tough luck loss, Matt Hand was terrific for us in relief today," said Leary. "Van Hoorebeke did a really great job in the middle innings to make sure we were able to get back into the game."
With the loss, the Mountain Hawks drop to 4-6 on the season, having dropped two of their last three games.
Offensively, it wasn't a surprise that Patriot League Player of the Week Ryan Malloy was the player that carried the team for what seems like the 100th time in a row. Malloy went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a run scored and a walk. On the season so far, he is hitting an unconscious .486 (18-for-37), slugging .919, with an on-base percentage of .500 and an OPS of 1.419. He now has five doubles and 34 total bases in the 2019 season.
Sweeney went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored, while Matt Hand went 1-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Eric Cichocki was 2-for-4 with a walk and run and Mike Maguire, the leadoff hitter, went 1-for-5 with an RBI and a run. Jake Kochmansky, who made his right start of the season in right field, did his part by walking twice.
"Offensively, Ryan Malloy led the way once again," Leary said. "We also had some key contributions from Sweeney, Hand, Cichocki and Kochmansky.
"We had a ton of competitive at-bats against some really talented arms."
The Mountain Hawks will look to re-group again when they take on the Dukes for the second game of the pair on Wednesday at 4 p.m. The game will be live-streamed on the James Madison Facebook page as well as on MadiZone HD Sportsnet radio.
After tomorrow's game, the Mountain Hawks will head to Lynchburg, Va. where they will face the University of Lynchburg for one game before heading to Lexington to face VMI for three games Friday through Sunday.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Nick Robertson (2-0)
L: Hand, Matt (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Malloy, Ryan 2 ; Hand, Matt 1
RBI: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Rother, Casey 1 ; Hand, Matt 2
SH: Kochmansky, Jake 1
SF: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 1 ; Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Hand, Matt 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 1
HBP: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Gallo, Tony 1 ; Kochmansky, Jake 1
Batting:
2B: Trevon Dabney 1 ; Nick Zona 2
RBI: Trevon Dabney 2 ; Travis Reifsnider 1 ; Dom Cepullio 1 ; Kyle Hayes 1 ; DaVonn Griff 1 ; Nick Zona 1
SH: David Willis 1
SF: Kyle Hayes 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dallas Jackson 1 ; Fox Semones 1 ; Dom Cepullio 1 ; Kyle Hayes 1 ; Nick Zona 3
SB: Trevon Dabney 1 ; Michael Morgan 1 ; Fox Semones 2 ; Dom Cepullio 1 ; Kyle Hayes 1 ; Nick Zona 1
HBP: Fox Semones 1 ; Kyle Hayes 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
IF
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1B
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RHP
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LHP
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