Lehigh University
16-20, 5-9
Lafayette
12-22, 7-7
Lehigh routs Lafayette, 12-1 behind Shanfeldt’s six RBIs
4/17/2019 8:55:00 PM | Baseball
The senior goes 4-for-6 with a home run and two doubles
The offense performed just about as dominantly as they did on Sunday against Navy at Walker Field, this time stringing together 12 runs on 15 total hits including starting the contest on an 8-0 scoring run to open the gates between the first and eighth innings and capping the game with a four-run ninth inning to pull away for the 12-1 victory.
"We've been talking a lot about the last week, we've kind of been playing in playoff mode already, we've had some must-wins," said head coach Sean Leary. "We've got ourselves back in the hunt a little bit, this is a head-to-head we needed. We have to catch these guys to get to the tournament, so this was a playoff game for us."
In the first and third innings, it was truly the Jeff Shanfeldt show, who continues his dominant stretch with yet another incredible performance at the plate.
The senior catcher doubled to right field in the top of the first inning, scoring Mike Maguire who singled to lead-off the contest and gave the Mountain Hawks an early 1-0 lead. Shanfeldt came through again in the top of the third inning with an RBI single through the right side, bringing in Gerard Sweeney to score, extending the Lehigh lead to 2-0.
T3: SHANFELDT! The senior catcher gets his second RBI of the game with a single to right field. Lehigh takes a 2-0 lead over Lafayette. Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #BeatLafayette pic.twitter.com/LsmmZD0HXd
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
The Mountain Hawks continued to pour it on in the top of the fifth inning starting with a Ryan Malloy sacrifice fly to score Maguire, a Tony Gallo single down the left field line, bringing in Gerard Sweeney and then a SAC-fly for Tyler Schreiner to continue to push Lehigh out in front, now 5-0.
The first five innings were equally as dominant for freshman right-hander Mason Black, who continued to pitch well from his last start last Wednesday, throwing 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing just five hits with a walk and four strikeouts to earn his second win of the season. Black has now thrown 11 2/3 straight innings without surrendering an earned run.
B5: Got 'em! Mason Black continues to carve through this Lafayette offense with his fourth punchout of the game. The right-hander leaves runners on the corners and heads to the sixth up, 5-0. Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #BeatLafayette pic.twitter.com/rk2MGIIwA3
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
"What's been most impressive is that the last two games were started by freshman arms and they both did outstanding jobs, looked like veterans and then we turned the ball over to veteran at the end of the game," said Leary. "Give Mason Black a ton of credit for setting the tone at the beginning of this game."
Lehigh continued to pad its lead in the sixth inning with two more runs. Shanfeldt's second double of the game scored Sweeney to give the Mountain Hawks a 6-0 advantage and then Malloy doubled down the left field line, scoring Shanfeldt to make it a 7-0 game.
T6: Jeff "🔥🔥🔥" Shanfeldt! The senior gets his second double of the game, scores Sweeney for his third RBI of the game. He's now 3-for-4 on the afternoon. Lehigh up, 6-0. Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #RTTR pic.twitter.com/hf6lmRLUrO
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
In the top of the seventh inning, Matt Hand continued the Lehigh scoring run with a double to right center field, scoring Quinn McKenna to make it 8-0.
Lafayette got its first and only run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning off Jason Reynolds, who only allowed one run on two hits with three strikeouts and walk in 3 1/3 innings of relief.T7: Matt Hand's second double of the game brings another run across in Quinn McKenna as the Mountain Hawks take an 8-0 lead over Lafayette heading into the bottom of the inning. Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #BeatLafayette pic.twitter.com/dMpsyHc4HH
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
In the top of the ninth inning, the final four runs of the game came between Lehigh's 2 and 3-hole hitters as Gerard Sweeney swatted his third hit of the afternoon, a single to left, scoring Eric Cichocki to put the Mountain Hawks up, 9-1.
Finally, the cherry on top came in the same inning, as Shanfeldt delivered on his fourth hit of the game, a three run home run ripped to left field to make it a 12-1 game, which proved to be the final. This is the second straight game Shanfeldt has ended the scoring with a three-run homer, as he did the same against Navy on Sunday to cap a nine run eighth inning.
T9: Oh. My. Goodness. Jeff Shanfeldt rips his fifth homer of the year, a three-run shot to give the Mountain Hawks a 12-1 lead over Lafayette. Shanfeldt is 4-for-6 with two doubles, a home run and SIX RBIs. Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #BeatLafayette pic.twitter.com/0oyftYkdfM
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
"I've just been looking for a good pitch to hit for the most part," said Shanfeldt. "If it's not there, I'll take my walk, I like walking.
"So honestly I'm just trying to find a good pitch to hit, put a swing on it and hopefully there are runners on base."
Shanfeldt was the king of the offense on Wednesday, finishing with an impressive stat-line of 4-for-6 with two doubles, a home run and three runs scored. The catcher even threw out a Lafayette runner who was attempting to swipe third base.
"If you look at his day today, he had an RBI double, an RBI single and then another RBI double and then the tack-on home run is fun, but really the three hits before that, every one of those were clutch," Leary said. "They overshifted today, so he just focused on putting the ball in play and he's really been selfless the last month. Everything we ask him to do, he's doing it.
"And maybe the biggest contribution he had all day was we had one miscue in the field and he throws the guy out stealing on the very next pitch. He's just been clutch in every way we can possibly ask him to be."
Freshman Gerard Sweeney had himself a 3-for-5 day with four runs scored, a walk and an RBI. Junior shortstop Matt Hand went 3-for-5 himself with two doubles and an RBI, while Mike Maguire continued his stretch of getting on base with a 2-for-4 game with a double, three runs scored and two walks. He now has a walk in six straight games, including two walks in his last three games. Maguire also made an incredible sliding catch in center field to record the first out of the bottom of the eighth inning.
B8: Web Gem? Mike Maguire slides and catches this Trey Durrah fly ball for the first out of the inning. Nice glove, Mags! Watch: @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #BeatLafayette pic.twitter.com/KWLdkB13C7
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 17, 2019
Ryan Malloy went 1-for-4 with a double, a walk and two RBIs while Tony Gallo went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.
Of the Mountain Hawks' 15 hits on the day, six of them were doubles including two from both Shanfeldt and Hand.
With the victory, Lehigh now trails the Leopards by three games in the standings, however Lafayette still holds the tiebreaker for the fourth seed in the Patriot League Tournament after winning the season series. The Mountain Hawks will look to continue to gain ground and extend their current winning streak of two straight when Bucknell (10-28, 3-15 PL) come to J. David Walker Field for a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon and a single game Easter Sunday also at noon. All three games will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Black, Mason (2-0)
L: Dunn, Michael (2-1)
S: Reynolds, Jason (1)
Batting:
2B: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 2 ; Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Hand, Matt 2
HR: Shanfeldt, Jeff 1
RBI: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 6 ; Malloy, Ryan 2 ; Gallo, Tony 1 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Hand, Matt 1
SF: Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Maguire, Mike 3 ; Sweeney, Gerard 4 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 3 ; McKenna, Quinn 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 1
HBP: Gallo, Tony 1
Batting:
RBI: Leckie, Dan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rouse, Spencer 1
SB: Stern, Ethan 1 ; Durrah, Trey 1
CS: Johnson, Justin 1 ; Leckie, Dan 1
HBP: Rouse, Spencer 1 ; Russo, Bill 1
