Wednesday, April 24
Bethlehem, PA.
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
20-20
12
vs
3
Coppin St.
21-17
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Coppin State
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
3
8
2
Lehigh
0
0
0
0
6
0
6
0
X
12
12
1
Photo by: Josh Liddick
Lehigh wins sixth straight with dominant 12-3 win over Coppin State
4/24/2019 8:58:00 PM | Baseball
Mountain Hawks claim sixth straight 20-win campaign
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Make that six straight wins for Lehigh baseball as the Mountain Hawks got yet another outstanding offensive outing from its starting lineup in a decisive 12-3 victory over Coppin State Wednesday afternoon at J. David Walker Field at Legacy Park. The win gets Lehigh to 20-20 overall on the year and back to .500 for the first time since Mar. 19 at Fairleigh Dickinson, when it attained an 8-8 record.
The win also marks the 20th victory for Lehigh this season, the sixth straight year the Mountain Hawks have reached the 20-win plateau.
Freshman left-hander Matt Stamford pitched very well despite allowing three early runs, however, two were unearned as consecutive passed balls brought two runs in to score and then a sacrifice-fly put the Eagles on top 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. Stamford ended up finishing pitching four innings, allowing just one earned run on two hits with five strikeouts including striking out the side in the first inning.
Playing with a deficit, the Mountain Hawks' offense got going in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman third baseman Gerard Sweeney singled to right field and brought in Lehigh's first run of the game, now trailing 3-1.
With the bases loaded, senior left fielder Ryan Malloy was hit by a pitch, bringing in Chase Carlson from third base to make it a 3-2 game.
With two outs in the inning and the bases full, National and Patriot League Player of the Week Tony Gallo slugged a ball over the left field fence for the grand slam home run, scoring all four runs to double Coppin State's run total, making it 6-3. The home run was Gallo's sixth of the season and pushed his season RBI total to 40 on the year. With the one swing of the bat, Gallo has now homered in three of his last four games. He is now hitting .600 (12-for-20) with three home runs and 12 RBIs with a slugging percentage of 1.100, an OBP of .667 for an OPS of 1.767 in his last five games.
"Tony just looks so relaxed in there," said head coach Sean Leary. "That ball, I mean the wind's blowing in 15 miles per hour from left and he goes and puts a big swing on it and the next thing we know is we get a grand slam.
"It's fun to see when guys are in that zone. They're not overthinking, they're just kind of letting their actions go after it but both Tony and Jeff (Shanfeldt) are here an hour before practice and getting their reps so it doesn't happen by accident, those guys put the time in."
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Mountain Hawks tacked another run on their total with senior Jeff Shanfeldt's sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to give Lehigh a 7-3 lead. Jake Kochmansky finished off his impressive 3-for-5 day with a two-RBI single to left field, giving the Mountain Hawks a nice advantage of 9-3.
After Kochmansky scored on a wild pitch in the same inning, Mike Maguire singled to right field and brought Carlson in for the 11th run of the game. Shanfeldt finished his afternoon with a double down the right field line, scoring Maguire to get the score to 12-3, which proved to be the final.
"I thought what was terrific today was that the guys who don't get their every day reps really were the difference in the game," said head coach Sean Leary. "Jake (Kochmansky) was the guy who got it started with a big bunt single when we couldn't generate on offense. But it took Jake and Chase (Carlson) and Gerard (Sweeney) to set the table for our guys.
Sophomore right-hander Peter Woltersdorf (3-2) picked up his third win of the 2019 campaign after pitching two shutout innings of relief, allowing just one hit with a strikeout.
The relief combination of Yash Rane, Sam Wurth and Matt Hand ended up combining to allow just five hits without giving up a run for the final three frames.
"I was really proud of pitching," said Leary. "Some of those guys have been out of the mix a little bit, because we've been playing so well and Peter had another great outing and then Yash and Sam come in and have flawless innings and then Matty (Hand) is guy we count on, but he hasn't got out there that much so they come out and have a clean last five innings."
Gerard Sweeney finished his day 3-for-4 with two doubles a walk and an RBI. This is his 11th multi-hit game of the season and the sixth game he had at least three hits in one game.
"I think he's been pretty balanced for the last week or so," Leary said. "He didn't have a whole lot of success this past weekend against Bucknell but we liked where he was. He takes a lot, he's a guy you can tell when he's locked in when he's not swinging at pitches out of the zone.
"And he didn't get base hits this weekend and he wasn't quite clicking, but today he had two two-strike doubles down the opposite way and then pulled two other balls later in the game."
Jake Kochmansky had his second three-hit game of the season by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base.
Shanfeldt continued to hit and contribute to the positive effort the Mountain Hawks keep bringing forth, by finishing the day by going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and two RBIs.
The win over Coppin State is the Mountain Hawks' 17th straight against the team as Lehigh now leads the all-time series, 22-1.
The victory sets the team up well to succeed this coming weekend as Lehigh visits Navy for a doubleheader in Annapolis on Saturday and then a doubleheader with Bucknell in Lewisburg on Sunday. The Mountain Hawks control their own fate going forward with a magic number of nine to make the postseason. Lehigh and Lafayette are both currently tied for fourth position with an 8-9 Patriot League record, though Lafayette owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.
"I think the most important thing we're learning right now is that we haven't changed our emotions whether we're up or we're down right now," said Leary. "We've had enough success now in the last couple weeks that we fell down earlier today and guys just stayed calm and stayed in the same mindset.
"We know that we have our hands full this weekend against Noah Song and so it'll be one of those moments where the next step is beating that first place team in Navy. But I'm proud of the guys, we're just playing the game the right way right now and we're excited for the opportunity this weekend to compete and certainly try to get ourselves in that fourth place spot in the tournament."
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
The win also marks the 20th victory for Lehigh this season, the sixth straight year the Mountain Hawks have reached the 20-win plateau.
Freshman left-hander Matt Stamford pitched very well despite allowing three early runs, however, two were unearned as consecutive passed balls brought two runs in to score and then a sacrifice-fly put the Eagles on top 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. Stamford ended up finishing pitching four innings, allowing just one earned run on two hits with five strikeouts including striking out the side in the first inning.
Playing with a deficit, the Mountain Hawks' offense got going in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman third baseman Gerard Sweeney singled to right field and brought in Lehigh's first run of the game, now trailing 3-1.
With the bases loaded, senior left fielder Ryan Malloy was hit by a pitch, bringing in Chase Carlson from third base to make it a 3-2 game.
With two outs in the inning and the bases full, National and Patriot League Player of the Week Tony Gallo slugged a ball over the left field fence for the grand slam home run, scoring all four runs to double Coppin State's run total, making it 6-3. The home run was Gallo's sixth of the season and pushed his season RBI total to 40 on the year. With the one swing of the bat, Gallo has now homered in three of his last four games. He is now hitting .600 (12-for-20) with three home runs and 12 RBIs with a slugging percentage of 1.100, an OBP of .667 for an OPS of 1.767 in his last five games.
"Tony just looks so relaxed in there," said head coach Sean Leary. "That ball, I mean the wind's blowing in 15 miles per hour from left and he goes and puts a big swing on it and the next thing we know is we get a grand slam.
"It's fun to see when guys are in that zone. They're not overthinking, they're just kind of letting their actions go after it but both Tony and Jeff (Shanfeldt) are here an hour before practice and getting their reps so it doesn't happen by accident, those guys put the time in."
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Mountain Hawks tacked another run on their total with senior Jeff Shanfeldt's sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to give Lehigh a 7-3 lead. Jake Kochmansky finished off his impressive 3-for-5 day with a two-RBI single to left field, giving the Mountain Hawks a nice advantage of 9-3.
After Kochmansky scored on a wild pitch in the same inning, Mike Maguire singled to right field and brought Carlson in for the 11th run of the game. Shanfeldt finished his afternoon with a double down the right field line, scoring Maguire to get the score to 12-3, which proved to be the final.
"I thought what was terrific today was that the guys who don't get their every day reps really were the difference in the game," said head coach Sean Leary. "Jake (Kochmansky) was the guy who got it started with a big bunt single when we couldn't generate on offense. But it took Jake and Chase (Carlson) and Gerard (Sweeney) to set the table for our guys.
Sophomore right-hander Peter Woltersdorf (3-2) picked up his third win of the 2019 campaign after pitching two shutout innings of relief, allowing just one hit with a strikeout.
The relief combination of Yash Rane, Sam Wurth and Matt Hand ended up combining to allow just five hits without giving up a run for the final three frames.
"I was really proud of pitching," said Leary. "Some of those guys have been out of the mix a little bit, because we've been playing so well and Peter had another great outing and then Yash and Sam come in and have flawless innings and then Matty (Hand) is guy we count on, but he hasn't got out there that much so they come out and have a clean last five innings."
Gerard Sweeney finished his day 3-for-4 with two doubles a walk and an RBI. This is his 11th multi-hit game of the season and the sixth game he had at least three hits in one game.
"I think he's been pretty balanced for the last week or so," Leary said. "He didn't have a whole lot of success this past weekend against Bucknell but we liked where he was. He takes a lot, he's a guy you can tell when he's locked in when he's not swinging at pitches out of the zone.
"And he didn't get base hits this weekend and he wasn't quite clicking, but today he had two two-strike doubles down the opposite way and then pulled two other balls later in the game."
Jake Kochmansky had his second three-hit game of the season by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base.
Shanfeldt continued to hit and contribute to the positive effort the Mountain Hawks keep bringing forth, by finishing the day by going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and two RBIs.
The win over Coppin State is the Mountain Hawks' 17th straight against the team as Lehigh now leads the all-time series, 22-1.
The victory sets the team up well to succeed this coming weekend as Lehigh visits Navy for a doubleheader in Annapolis on Saturday and then a doubleheader with Bucknell in Lewisburg on Sunday. The Mountain Hawks control their own fate going forward with a magic number of nine to make the postseason. Lehigh and Lafayette are both currently tied for fourth position with an 8-9 Patriot League record, though Lafayette owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.
"I think the most important thing we're learning right now is that we haven't changed our emotions whether we're up or we're down right now," said Leary. "We've had enough success now in the last couple weeks that we fell down earlier today and guys just stayed calm and stayed in the same mindset.
"We know that we have our hands full this weekend against Noah Song and so it'll be one of those moments where the next step is beating that first place team in Navy. But I'm proud of the guys, we're just playing the game the right way right now and we're excited for the opportunity this weekend to compete and certainly try to get ourselves in that fourth place spot in the tournament."
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Woltersdorf, Peter (3-2)
L: HARBUT,Carter (1-3)
Batting:
2B: CASTILLO,Marcos 1
RBI: MARTINEZ,Nick 1
SF: MARTINEZ,Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McILWAIN,Nazier 1 ; CASTILLO,Marcos 1 ; LOHR,Derek 1
SB: THOMAS,Drew 1
Batting:
2B: Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 1
HR: Shanfeldt, Jeff 1 ; Gallo, Tony 1
RBI: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 2 ; Malloy, Ryan 1 ; Gallo, Tony 4 ; Kochmansky, Jake 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Maguire, Mike 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Shanfeldt, Jeff 2 ; Malloy, Ryan 2 ; Gallo, Tony 1 ; Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Kochmansky, Jake 2 ; Carlson, Chase 2
SB: Schreiner, Tyler 1 ; Kochmansky, Jake 1 ; Carlson, Chase 1
CS: Gorla, Joe 1
HBP: Shanfeldt, Jeff 1 ; Malloy, Ryan 2
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
5
R
2
H
3
RBI
2
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
2
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
IF
/ Baseball
1B/2B
/ Baseball
1B
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball3B
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
Baseball vs. Coppin State
Tuesday, April 29
Baseball vs. Penn
Wednesday, March 19
Baseball vs. UAlbany
Sunday, March 16
Season Preview Baseball
Thursday, February 13
