Saturday, April 20
Bethlehem, PA.
1 p.m.
Lehigh University
17-20, 0
5
vs
3
Bucknell
10-29, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Bucknell
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
3
5
2
Lehigh
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
2
5
8
0
Photo by: Justin Lafleur
Gallo's two walk-offs headline Lehigh's thrilling doubleheader sweep of Bucknell
4/20/2019 10:00:00 PM | Baseball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — On Saturday, it was Tony Gallo's world and we were just living in it. The junior first baseman had the doubleheader of his career as Lehigh baseball used Gallo's two walk-off hits to sweep Bucknell, 5-3 and 7-6 Saturday afternoon at J. David Walker Field at Legacy Park.
Lehigh's offense kept hitting, but the Bison kept the games close throughout and forced the Mountain Hawks to rely on their heart of the order down to the wire in each of the outings.
In the first game, Bucknell set the tone early with a home run to open the top of the first inning off Levi Stoudt to take a 1-0 lead.
Tyler Schreiner's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second inning tied the game at 1, but Tony Gallo came through for the first time in the afternoon in the bottom of the third with his single to left field, scoring Gerard Sweeney to make it 2-1.
The Bison got a run back on another solo shot in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game at 2, but Eric Cichocki's double down the left field line, scored Matt Hand in the sixth inning to give the Mountain Hawks a brief 3-2 lead.
JohnPaul Bell's tripe to left center ultimately tied the game back at 3 in the seventh inning for Bucknell which then forced extra innings, which lasted until the ninth.
With Ryan Malloy already on-base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tony Gallo hit an absolute monster shot to right center field, a walk-off two-run home run to give the Mountain Hawks the Game 1 victory over Bucknell, 5-3 in nine innings.
Gallo finished his Game 1 performance going 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, a run scored and three RBIs to get the job done.
Ethan Frohman (4-1) picked up his fourth win of the season, relieving Stoudt and went an inning with just one walk allowed. Stoudt went eight innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts.
Aside from Gallo in the first game, Eric Cichocki was the only other player to get more than one hit for Lehigh, as he went 2-for-3 with his RBI double.
In Game 2, there was a lot of the same, especially with the fight the Bison put up to try to avoid the doubleheader sweep on the road.
Bucknell cracked the runs column first in Game 2 on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.
Tony Gallo followed up his walk-off homer in Game 1 with a solo shot in his first at-bat of the second game to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the second inning.
The Bison got another run in the top of the fourth inning after an RBI single to take a 2-1 lead.
Gallo's double down the left field line ended up scoring Malloy to tie the game back up at 2 in the bottom of the fourth inning. With the bases loaded, Mike Maguire then walked to score a run to make it 3-2.
Bucknell had two home runs in the top of the fifth inning to surge ahead, 5-3, but Mike Maguire came through again in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run to right field to make it 5-4. His SAC-fly in the bottom of the eighth ended up bringing in Cole Humes to tie the game up at 5-5 once again.
After Bucknell pulled out in front in the top of the ninth inning thanks to another sacrifice-fly, the Mountain Hawks turned to Gallo once again in the bottom of the ninth with two runners on second and third, trailing 7-6.
Gallo found a pitch to hit, slapped the ball down the left field line, which was deep enough to score both Shanfeldt and Malloy to give the Mountain Hawks a 7-6 win and the second walk-off victory of the day.
"I would say that this was a total team effort today," said head coach Sean Leary. "Obviously, Tony Gallo was our go-to hero kind of guy. I mean, two walk-offs in one day is not something I can remember anyone in my time doing that before."
In addition to Gallo's first career five-hit game, he went 8-for-9 with a home run, a double, a walk, three runs scored and seven RBIs between the two games. This is the first time the Mountain Hawks won both games of a doubleheader in walk-off fashion since wins over Bucknell back on Apr. 5, 2015 at J. David Walker Field.
Ethan Frohman started the game for the Mountain Hawks after picking up the Game 1 win and went four innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits in four innings of work with three strikeouts. Matt Svanson picked up his first win of the season in a four inning relief performance, allowing just one earned run on three this with three strikeouts.
"The pitching today, for Fro to finish Game 1 and then to get as far as he could into Game 2. And Matt Svanson was just outstanding," said Leary. "He had a couple bad breaks in the ninth inning and then minimized the inning to just one run and gave our guys a shot.
"And honestly, I was thinking about those middle guys bunting at the end of the game, but those are the guys that have been winning us all our games this season and to their credit, they all came through. Jeff takes a walk like he's done all year and then Ryan and Tony did what they've been doing all season. Again, I would say that up-and down the lineup, there have been contributions from everybody.
Lehigh will turn its focus back to Bucknell on Sunday to look for the season series win over the Bison, which would be the Mountain Hawks' first series victory over a Patriot League opponent this season. With the victory, Lehigh improves to 7-9 in the Patriot League and is hoping for Holy Cross to get wins over Lafayette on Sunday and Monday in order to gain ground in the race for the fourth seed in the Patriot League Tournament.
"We've got to win this series and we've took care of business on our home field, but we know they'll be ready tomorrow, they're a super tough opponent," Leary said. "But I'm proud of our guys. This is now sort of four must-wins in a row, we've put ourselves back into a position where we're going to control our fate over the last nine Patriot League games."
Sunday's noon single game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Gallery: (4/20/2019) Baseball vs. Bucknell, 4/20/19
Lehigh's offense kept hitting, but the Bison kept the games close throughout and forced the Mountain Hawks to rely on their heart of the order down to the wire in each of the outings.
In the first game, Bucknell set the tone early with a home run to open the top of the first inning off Levi Stoudt to take a 1-0 lead.
Tyler Schreiner's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second inning tied the game at 1, but Tony Gallo came through for the first time in the afternoon in the bottom of the third with his single to left field, scoring Gerard Sweeney to make it 2-1.
The Bison got a run back on another solo shot in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game at 2, but Eric Cichocki's double down the left field line, scored Matt Hand in the sixth inning to give the Mountain Hawks a brief 3-2 lead.
JohnPaul Bell's tripe to left center ultimately tied the game back at 3 in the seventh inning for Bucknell which then forced extra innings, which lasted until the ninth.
With Ryan Malloy already on-base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tony Gallo hit an absolute monster shot to right center field, a walk-off two-run home run to give the Mountain Hawks the Game 1 victory over Bucknell, 5-3 in nine innings.
B9: WALK IT OFF TONE. WALK. IT. OFF. Tony Gallo sends this ball flying over the right center field wall and the Mountain Hawks take game one from Bucknell, 5-3. Watch Game 2 on @PatriotLeagueTV. #GoLehigh #RTTR pic.twitter.com/GrXEmERrTn
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 20, 2019
Gallo finished his Game 1 performance going 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, a run scored and three RBIs to get the job done.
Ethan Frohman (4-1) picked up his fourth win of the season, relieving Stoudt and went an inning with just one walk allowed. Stoudt went eight innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts.
Aside from Gallo in the first game, Eric Cichocki was the only other player to get more than one hit for Lehigh, as he went 2-for-3 with his RBI double.
In Game 2, there was a lot of the same, especially with the fight the Bison put up to try to avoid the doubleheader sweep on the road.
Bucknell cracked the runs column first in Game 2 on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.
Tony Gallo followed up his walk-off homer in Game 1 with a solo shot in his first at-bat of the second game to tie the game at 1 in the bottom of the second inning.
The Bison got another run in the top of the fourth inning after an RBI single to take a 2-1 lead.
Gallo's double down the left field line ended up scoring Malloy to tie the game back up at 2 in the bottom of the fourth inning. With the bases loaded, Mike Maguire then walked to score a run to make it 3-2.
Bucknell had two home runs in the top of the fifth inning to surge ahead, 5-3, but Mike Maguire came through again in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run to right field to make it 5-4. His SAC-fly in the bottom of the eighth ended up bringing in Cole Humes to tie the game up at 5-5 once again.
After Bucknell pulled out in front in the top of the ninth inning thanks to another sacrifice-fly, the Mountain Hawks turned to Gallo once again in the bottom of the ninth with two runners on second and third, trailing 7-6.
Gallo found a pitch to hit, slapped the ball down the left field line, which was deep enough to score both Shanfeldt and Malloy to give the Mountain Hawks a 7-6 win and the second walk-off victory of the day.
HAVE A DAY, TONY GALLO! The junior caps off his 8-for-9 day with his SECOND walk-off hit of the afternoon. Lehigh sweeps Bucknell on Saturday. That's EIGHT RBIs for the first baseman. #GoLehigh #RTTR pic.twitter.com/kSu7fhMRP0
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 20, 2019
"I would say that this was a total team effort today," said head coach Sean Leary. "Obviously, Tony Gallo was our go-to hero kind of guy. I mean, two walk-offs in one day is not something I can remember anyone in my time doing that before."
In addition to Gallo's first career five-hit game, he went 8-for-9 with a home run, a double, a walk, three runs scored and seven RBIs between the two games. This is the first time the Mountain Hawks won both games of a doubleheader in walk-off fashion since wins over Bucknell back on Apr. 5, 2015 at J. David Walker Field.
Ethan Frohman started the game for the Mountain Hawks after picking up the Game 1 win and went four innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits in four innings of work with three strikeouts. Matt Svanson picked up his first win of the season in a four inning relief performance, allowing just one earned run on three this with three strikeouts.
"The pitching today, for Fro to finish Game 1 and then to get as far as he could into Game 2. And Matt Svanson was just outstanding," said Leary. "He had a couple bad breaks in the ninth inning and then minimized the inning to just one run and gave our guys a shot.
"And honestly, I was thinking about those middle guys bunting at the end of the game, but those are the guys that have been winning us all our games this season and to their credit, they all came through. Jeff takes a walk like he's done all year and then Ryan and Tony did what they've been doing all season. Again, I would say that up-and down the lineup, there have been contributions from everybody.
Lehigh will turn its focus back to Bucknell on Sunday to look for the season series win over the Bison, which would be the Mountain Hawks' first series victory over a Patriot League opponent this season. With the victory, Lehigh improves to 7-9 in the Patriot League and is hoping for Holy Cross to get wins over Lafayette on Sunday and Monday in order to gain ground in the race for the fourth seed in the Patriot League Tournament.
"We've got to win this series and we've took care of business on our home field, but we know they'll be ready tomorrow, they're a super tough opponent," Leary said. "But I'm proud of our guys. This is now sort of four must-wins in a row, we've put ourselves back into a position where we're going to control our fate over the last nine Patriot League games."
Sunday's noon single game will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Frohman, Ethan (4-1)
L: Robichaux, Hunter (0-1)
Batting:
3B: Bell, JohnPaul 1
HR: Wincig, Tyler 1 ; Toso, Dominic 1
RBI: Wincig, Tyler 1 ; Toso, Dominic 1 ; Bell, JohnPaul 1
SH: Baumann, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wincig, Tyler 1 ; Toso, Dominic 2
SB: Strahm, PJ 1
CS: Baumann, Alex 1
Batting:
2B: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Hand, Matt 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 1
HR: Gallo, Tony 1
RBI: Gallo, Tony 3 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Cichocki , Eric 1
SF: Schreiner, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Malloy, Ryan 2 ; Gallo, Tony 1 ; Hand, Matt 1
SB: Hand, Matt 1
HBP: Malloy, Ryan 1 ; McKenna, Quinn 1 ; Hand, Matt 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
3
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
IF
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LHP
/ Baseball1B/2B
/ Baseball
LHP/OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
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