Friday, March 6
Greensboro, N.C.
4 p.m.
Lehigh University
4-8
9
at
3
North Carolina A&T
6-7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
R
H
E
Lehigh
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
6
9
17
1
North Carolina A&T
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
13
0
Photo by: Justin Lafleur
Mountain Hawks outlast NC A&T, 9-3 in marathon 15-inning game
3/6/2020 9:59:00 PM | Baseball
GREENSBORO, N.C. — It took nearly five hours and 15 innings, but the Lehigh baseball team finally got the job done, scoring six runs in the top of the 15th inning to pull away for the 9-3 win over North Carolina A&T at War Memorial Field Friday afternoon into the night.
The Mountain Hawks combined for 17 hits over the 15 innings, including a 4-for-8 performance out of freshman catcher Adam Retzbach, while both Gerard Sweeney and Jake Kochmansky added three hits apiece.
"Honestly, I thought offensively this was our best overall game in every facet," said head coach Sean Leary. "We pitched outstanding, we played terrific defense and we were grinding offensively. We were getting guys on and their Number 1 starter is legit, their closer was outstanding, we were fighting and clawing and we got two off their starter and scrapped one in the ninth off their closer.
"We were just getting guys on and so were they. It was just pitchers making big pitches and defenses making great plays and eventually we go to them. Overall though, I thought our offensive approach was as strong as it has been all year."
Although he walked the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the first inning, sophomore right-hander Mason Black settled in and went seven strong innings, allowing just an earned run on four hits with a career-high nine strikeouts. Black has tied his career-high in three straight games with nine in each outing, collecting 27 punchouts in three starts.
Trying the utilize the bullpen as little as possible with two more games this weekend, Sam Wurth and Matt Stamford went four innings each to close the game as Lehigh used only three pitchers in total on the night.
"I was very impressed with the way Mason threw today and the poise of the entire pitching staff throughout the game," said Leary. "Every pitch they threw the game was on the line and obviously we were tied for six innings there so they were the story of the day for sure."
NC A&T drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning where they scored a run on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the second inning, Matt Hand reached on a fielder's choice to score Retzbach, tying the game up at 1. The Mountain Hawks extended upon the lead with an RBI single for Jake Kochmansky to take a 2-1 lead.
It took all the way until the bottom of the seventh inning for anyone to make any moves on the scoreboard, but the Aggies tied the game off an RBI single to center field, eventually taking back the lead in the eighth inning on another RBI single, inching out in front, 3-2.
Hand led off the top of the ninth inning with a walk before advancing to second base on a Kochmansky groundout. Chase Carlson then walked to load the bases with Hand and Sweeney on, eventually sending junior Quinn McKenna to the plate with two outs.
With an 0-2 count, McKenna was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game up at 3-3, sending the ballgame to extra innings for the first time this season.
The Mountain Hawks had many chances over the next four innings, including stranding runners on the other side of the plate to make sure the game stayed knotted up, but the game remained 3-3 heading into the top of the 15th inning when everything changed.
Retzbach led off the inning with what could be the key to the win, a leadoff triple to center field, putting a runner in scoring position with no outs. Mike Maguire came right back up and singled through the right side, scoring Retzbach to take a 4-3 lead.
After Maguire advanced to second on a wild pitch, the Aggies issued back-to-back walks to Eric Cichocki and Hand to load the bases back up for Kochmansky. Two runs came in to score off Kochmansky's single, extending the Lehigh lead to 6-3.
With two runners on and one out in the inning, Chase Carlson delivered the hit of his life, a three-run home run over the right field wall to give the Mountain Hawks a commanding 9-3 advantage.
"I thought we were able to get a lot out of our bench today, getting guys in there to contribute towards the end of the game," Leary said. "Chase had a great set of at-bats, every one of them was just competitive and Quinn came in and made some great defensive plays and had that hit-by-pitch in the ninth.
"But that's what it's all about, you need your entire roster to contribute. Today we saw a lot of guys come in late to spark us."
Stamford finished out the game in the bottom of the 15th inning by retiring the side and leaving a runner on base to come away with the come-from-behind 9-3 victory. The decision was given to Stamford, who picked up his first win of the 2020 campaign.
The win snapped a four-game winning streak for North Carolina A&T after the Aggies picked up a pair of victories over Boston College last weekend.
"We knew coming in to today, it was going to be a tough series, so this is a quality win for sure," said Leary. "As for tomorrow, the good fortune is that we have a lot of faith in our starting pitchers so our bullpen was used a little bit today, but those three guys saved our bullpen.
"When you only use three guys in a 15 inning game, that's pretty awesome so we'll be turning over guys fresh tomorrow for Matt Svanson. We feel pretty good about having enough arms to compete for sure the rest of the weekend."
The Mountain Hawks take on the Aggies on Saturday with a first pitch set for 3 p.m. and then close out the series against A&T on Sunday at 1 p.m. before heading to Fairleigh-Dickinson on Tuesday.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
The Mountain Hawks combined for 17 hits over the 15 innings, including a 4-for-8 performance out of freshman catcher Adam Retzbach, while both Gerard Sweeney and Jake Kochmansky added three hits apiece.
"Honestly, I thought offensively this was our best overall game in every facet," said head coach Sean Leary. "We pitched outstanding, we played terrific defense and we were grinding offensively. We were getting guys on and their Number 1 starter is legit, their closer was outstanding, we were fighting and clawing and we got two off their starter and scrapped one in the ninth off their closer.
"We were just getting guys on and so were they. It was just pitchers making big pitches and defenses making great plays and eventually we go to them. Overall though, I thought our offensive approach was as strong as it has been all year."
Although he walked the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the first inning, sophomore right-hander Mason Black settled in and went seven strong innings, allowing just an earned run on four hits with a career-high nine strikeouts. Black has tied his career-high in three straight games with nine in each outing, collecting 27 punchouts in three starts.
Trying the utilize the bullpen as little as possible with two more games this weekend, Sam Wurth and Matt Stamford went four innings each to close the game as Lehigh used only three pitchers in total on the night.
"I was very impressed with the way Mason threw today and the poise of the entire pitching staff throughout the game," said Leary. "Every pitch they threw the game was on the line and obviously we were tied for six innings there so they were the story of the day for sure."
NC A&T drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning where they scored a run on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the second inning, Matt Hand reached on a fielder's choice to score Retzbach, tying the game up at 1. The Mountain Hawks extended upon the lead with an RBI single for Jake Kochmansky to take a 2-1 lead.
It took all the way until the bottom of the seventh inning for anyone to make any moves on the scoreboard, but the Aggies tied the game off an RBI single to center field, eventually taking back the lead in the eighth inning on another RBI single, inching out in front, 3-2.
Hand led off the top of the ninth inning with a walk before advancing to second base on a Kochmansky groundout. Chase Carlson then walked to load the bases with Hand and Sweeney on, eventually sending junior Quinn McKenna to the plate with two outs.
With an 0-2 count, McKenna was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game up at 3-3, sending the ballgame to extra innings for the first time this season.
The Mountain Hawks had many chances over the next four innings, including stranding runners on the other side of the plate to make sure the game stayed knotted up, but the game remained 3-3 heading into the top of the 15th inning when everything changed.
Retzbach led off the inning with what could be the key to the win, a leadoff triple to center field, putting a runner in scoring position with no outs. Mike Maguire came right back up and singled through the right side, scoring Retzbach to take a 4-3 lead.
After Maguire advanced to second on a wild pitch, the Aggies issued back-to-back walks to Eric Cichocki and Hand to load the bases back up for Kochmansky. Two runs came in to score off Kochmansky's single, extending the Lehigh lead to 6-3.
With two runners on and one out in the inning, Chase Carlson delivered the hit of his life, a three-run home run over the right field wall to give the Mountain Hawks a commanding 9-3 advantage.
"I thought we were able to get a lot out of our bench today, getting guys in there to contribute towards the end of the game," Leary said. "Chase had a great set of at-bats, every one of them was just competitive and Quinn came in and made some great defensive plays and had that hit-by-pitch in the ninth.
"But that's what it's all about, you need your entire roster to contribute. Today we saw a lot of guys come in late to spark us."
Stamford finished out the game in the bottom of the 15th inning by retiring the side and leaving a runner on base to come away with the come-from-behind 9-3 victory. The decision was given to Stamford, who picked up his first win of the 2020 campaign.
The win snapped a four-game winning streak for North Carolina A&T after the Aggies picked up a pair of victories over Boston College last weekend.
"We knew coming in to today, it was going to be a tough series, so this is a quality win for sure," said Leary. "As for tomorrow, the good fortune is that we have a lot of faith in our starting pitchers so our bullpen was used a little bit today, but those three guys saved our bullpen.
"When you only use three guys in a 15 inning game, that's pretty awesome so we'll be turning over guys fresh tomorrow for Matt Svanson. We feel pretty good about having enough arms to compete for sure the rest of the weekend."
The Mountain Hawks take on the Aggies on Saturday with a first pitch set for 3 p.m. and then close out the series against A&T on Sunday at 1 p.m. before heading to Fairleigh-Dickinson on Tuesday.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Stamford, Matt (1-0)
L: Cawthorne, I (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1
3B: Retzbach, Adam 1
HR: Carlson, Chase 1
RBI: Carlson, Chase 3 ; McKenna, Quinn 1 ; Maguire, Mike 1 ; Hand, Matt 1 ; Kochmansky, Jake 3
SH: Kochmansky, Jake 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Carlson, Chase 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 2 ; Maguire, Mike 2 ; Cichocki , Eric 1 ; Hand, Matt 2 ; Kochmansky, Jake 1
SB: Gallo, Tony 1
CS: Carlson, Chase 2
HBP: McKenna, Quinn 1
PO: Carlson, Chase 1
Batting:
2B: MCLEAN,Zach 1 ; STANLEY,Ryne 1 ; Rodriguez, J 1
RBI: WILLIAMSON,C 1 ; WILLIAMS,J 1 ; Rodriguez, J 1
SH: MCLEAN,Zach 1 ; MACK,Tony 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Baber, D. 1 ; FAULK,Shane 1 ; STANLEY,Ryne 1
SB: FAULK,Shane 1
CS: WILLIAMSON,C 1 ; MACK,Tony 1
HBP: Bibb, A. 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
8
R
2
H
4
RBI
0
AB
8
R
0
H
3
RBI
0
AB
6
R
1
H
3
RBI
3
pr/dh
AB
2
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
Players Mentioned
RHP
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IF
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OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
OF
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RHP
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