Wednesday, March 27
Bethlehem, Pa.
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
10-13
13
vs
5
Saint Peter's
0-18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Saint Peter's
0
0
2
0
0
2
1
0
0
5
7
0
Lehigh
0
0
2
0
3
0
1
7
X
13
8
0
Photo by: Justin Lafleur
Long ball powers Mountain Hawks to home victory over Saint Peter's
3/27/2019 9:20:00 PM | Baseball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Lehigh baseball was looking to get back into the win column after dropping five of its last six games, and they were successful, getting a 13-5 victory over Saint Peter's Wednesday afternoon at J. David Walker Field at Legacy Park.
The Mountain Hawks had a slow start to the game, as the Peacocks got out to the first lead of the afternoon after a two-RBI double made it 2-0.
It didn't take long for Lehigh to put its footprint on the outcome of the game, as freshman Gerard Sweeney slugged his second home run of the season to right center field, scoring Tim DiLoreto to tie the game up at 2.
The Mountain Hawks added three more runs on two walks by Sweeney and Jeff Shanfeldt as well as a Ryan Malloy sacrifice fly to make it a 5-2 game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Saint Peter's showed life in the top of the sixth and seventh innings after a Jared Paladino two-run homer to left field and an Edwin Feliciano groundout scored a run to make it 5-5, tying the game once again.
Shanfeldt made sure the tie ballgame only lasted a half an inning, as he homered to left center in the bottom of the seventh, making it a 6-5 game. The home run is Shanfeldt's second in back-to-back games.
Lehigh tacked its final seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as Sweeney doubled down the right field line, scoring Chase Carlson and Eric Cichocki, which was followed by a Tyler Schreiner walk with the bases loaded, scoring Mike Maguire. On a 1-0 count, junior shortstop Matt Hand got his first home run of the season, a grand slam to left center to give the Mountain Hawks a 13-5 lead, which ended up holding to form.
The bats continued to light it up on Wednesday, as the offense hit home runs No. 16, 17 and 18, which continues to be the best mark in the Patriot League.
Gerard Sweeney finished the afternoon going 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, a walk, two runs scored and five RBIs. He has now reached base safely in five straight games.
"Gerard is a very talented kid and obviously he's been starting from day one," said head coach Sean Leary. "So we see this in him, but it takes some repetitions at this level. He's had some really good performances over the last 10 days and we're hoping he can build on that."
Jeff Shanfeldt has finally come into his All-Patriot League form this season, going 1-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and two walks. He extends his on-base streak to 19 straight games.
Four other players each had themselves a hit, including Matt Hand's grand slam in the eighth inning.
"Matt is right up there as one of the hardest workers on the team," Leary said. "He's such a team guy that he's willing to get hit by pitches and walk and bunt and he's worked so hard on his offensive side and so it was wonderful to see him start to have some success with extra base hits and having a home run, especially in that moment was just awesome. The kids were excited for him and that's why you put all the hours in the gym."
The Mountain Hawks walked 16 times as a team and Tyler Schreiner, Matt Hand and Eric Cichocki each stole a base.
On the mound, freshman Matt Stamford pitched well, going 3 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs on two hits with three strikeouts on 44 pitches, after being pulled out of the game early on Tuesday against Delaware.
"When we took Matt out of the game early yesterday, I told him as he was coming off the mound that he was going to go back out there tomorrow," said Leary. "It didn't click yesterday and sometimes the best thing to do is before it's a tough outing we shift gears and get him right back out there the next day. He really did pitch well, he had one bad pitch (the home run), otherwise he would've had four shutout innings."
The win bumps Lehigh's record up to 10-13 on the season, as the team gets ready to continue Patriot League play with a three-game series at Holy Cross this weekend with two games Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m., as well as Sunday at noon.
"With the younger lineup right now, we're just trying to get better," said Leary. "I think the last couple days, we've seen so many positives with guys coming up with clutch hits, not just getting on base, but there's at least six or eight times in the last two days where we had a two-out hit or a multi-RBI hit in situations where we didn't have that the first third of the season.
"So any confidence you can build off offense is certainly going to be a positive going into the weekend. We just need to turn the execution up a little bit and play a little sharper than we did last weekend."
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
The Mountain Hawks had a slow start to the game, as the Peacocks got out to the first lead of the afternoon after a two-RBI double made it 2-0.
It didn't take long for Lehigh to put its footprint on the outcome of the game, as freshman Gerard Sweeney slugged his second home run of the season to right center field, scoring Tim DiLoreto to tie the game up at 2.
The Mountain Hawks added three more runs on two walks by Sweeney and Jeff Shanfeldt as well as a Ryan Malloy sacrifice fly to make it a 5-2 game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Saint Peter's showed life in the top of the sixth and seventh innings after a Jared Paladino two-run homer to left field and an Edwin Feliciano groundout scored a run to make it 5-5, tying the game once again.
Shanfeldt made sure the tie ballgame only lasted a half an inning, as he homered to left center in the bottom of the seventh, making it a 6-5 game. The home run is Shanfeldt's second in back-to-back games.
Lehigh tacked its final seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as Sweeney doubled down the right field line, scoring Chase Carlson and Eric Cichocki, which was followed by a Tyler Schreiner walk with the bases loaded, scoring Mike Maguire. On a 1-0 count, junior shortstop Matt Hand got his first home run of the season, a grand slam to left center to give the Mountain Hawks a 13-5 lead, which ended up holding to form.
The bats continued to light it up on Wednesday, as the offense hit home runs No. 16, 17 and 18, which continues to be the best mark in the Patriot League.
Gerard Sweeney finished the afternoon going 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, a walk, two runs scored and five RBIs. He has now reached base safely in five straight games.
"Gerard is a very talented kid and obviously he's been starting from day one," said head coach Sean Leary. "So we see this in him, but it takes some repetitions at this level. He's had some really good performances over the last 10 days and we're hoping he can build on that."
Jeff Shanfeldt has finally come into his All-Patriot League form this season, going 1-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and two walks. He extends his on-base streak to 19 straight games.
Four other players each had themselves a hit, including Matt Hand's grand slam in the eighth inning.
"Matt is right up there as one of the hardest workers on the team," Leary said. "He's such a team guy that he's willing to get hit by pitches and walk and bunt and he's worked so hard on his offensive side and so it was wonderful to see him start to have some success with extra base hits and having a home run, especially in that moment was just awesome. The kids were excited for him and that's why you put all the hours in the gym."
The Mountain Hawks walked 16 times as a team and Tyler Schreiner, Matt Hand and Eric Cichocki each stole a base.
On the mound, freshman Matt Stamford pitched well, going 3 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs on two hits with three strikeouts on 44 pitches, after being pulled out of the game early on Tuesday against Delaware.
"When we took Matt out of the game early yesterday, I told him as he was coming off the mound that he was going to go back out there tomorrow," said Leary. "It didn't click yesterday and sometimes the best thing to do is before it's a tough outing we shift gears and get him right back out there the next day. He really did pitch well, he had one bad pitch (the home run), otherwise he would've had four shutout innings."
The win bumps Lehigh's record up to 10-13 on the season, as the team gets ready to continue Patriot League play with a three-game series at Holy Cross this weekend with two games Saturday at noon and 2:30 p.m., as well as Sunday at noon.
"With the younger lineup right now, we're just trying to get better," said Leary. "I think the last couple days, we've seen so many positives with guys coming up with clutch hits, not just getting on base, but there's at least six or eight times in the last two days where we had a two-out hit or a multi-RBI hit in situations where we didn't have that the first third of the season.
"So any confidence you can build off offense is certainly going to be a positive going into the weekend. We just need to turn the execution up a little bit and play a little sharper than we did last weekend."
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Frohman, Ethan (2-0)
L: Ledwin Nunez (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Hunter Mason 1 ; Chris Marquart 2
HR: Jared Paladino 1
RBI: Edwin Feliciano 1 ; Hunter Mason 2 ; Jared Paladino 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Edwin Feliciano 1 ; Peter Ferony 1 ; Jared Paladino 1 ; Chris Marquart 2
Batting:
2B: Sweeney, Gerard 1
HR: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 1 ; Hand, Matt 1
RBI: Sweeney, Gerard 5 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 2 ; Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Hand, Matt 4
SH: Maguire, Mike 1
SF: Malloy, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Maguire, Mike 2 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 1 ; Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Hand, Matt 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 2 ; DiLoreto, Tim 2 ; Carlson, Chase 1
SB: Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Hand, Matt 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
2
H
3
RBI
5
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
IF
/ Baseball
IF
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C
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OF
/ Baseball
OF
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