Lehigh University
4-5, 0
Bucknell
1-5, 0
Lehigh Scores Seven in the 12th to Take Weekend Series vs. Bucknell
3/14/2021 10:02:00 PM | Baseball
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"Matt stepped up and settled things down during some late innings, high-pressure situation," said Lehigh head coach Sean Leary. "He was our MVP today."
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The Mountain Hawks fell behind 5-0 in the first inning, but immediately answered with an eight-spot in the second. The inning began with five consecutive hits, all singles except a double from sophomore Cam Hubbard. The rest of the inning saw no more hits, but four hit by pitches, an RBI groundout and sacrifice fly to put the Mountain Hawks in front, 8-5.
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The Bison responded with five total runs over the fifth and six innings, while Lehigh plated single runs in the sixth and seventh, respectively. In the seventh, a Casey Rother RBI single knotted the score at 10, which stood heading into extra innings.
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The top of the 12th began with a Gerard Sweeney triple and Rother double to score Sweeney, putting Lehigh in front, 11-10. Before the inning was said and done, the Mountain Hawks would score seven times – despite just three total hits. That was more than enough for Stamford, who in the bottom of the inning, retired Bucknell in order to wrap up the 17-10 win.
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"Today's windy conditions made executing a challenge for both teams," said Leary. "But our guys played a gritty game and showed some toughness battling back from an early five-run deficit. Our willingness to do the small things today was the key to our offensive success. Eric Cichocki once again led the way getting on base six times and Rother and Sweeney provided some clutch hits."
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Cichocki finished the day 1-of-3, but with a walk and four hit by pitches. Rother was 4-of-7 on the afternoon with three RBI and three runs scored. Freshman Riley Davis also had multiple hits, finishing 2-of-3 with three RBI and a run scored.
"Learning to win when things aren't perfect is a key to having a successful season and today, the guys just hung in there until they found a way," said Leary.
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The Mountain Hawks are scheduled to return to action next weekend with a three-game series against Navy, hosting the Midshipmen twice on Saturday before traveling to Annapolis for a single game Sunday.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Stamford, Matt (1-0)
L: Bryce Reimer (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Cichocki , Eric 1 ; Rother, Casey 1 ; Hubbard, Cam 1
3B: Sweeney, Gerard 1
RBI: Cichocki , Eric 2 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Rother, Casey 3 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Davis, Riley 3 ; Young, Tyler 1
SH: McKenna, Quinn 1
SF: Gorla, Joe 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cichocki , Eric 3 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Rother, Casey 3 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Carlson, Chase 1 ; Hubbard, Cam 2 ; Davis, Riley 1 ; Young, Tyler 1 ; McKenna, Quinn 2
SB: Rother, Casey 1
CS: Hubbard, Cam 1
HBP: Cichocki , Eric 4 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Rother, Casey 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Hubbard, Cam 1 ; Davis, Riley 1 ; Young, Tyler 1
Batting:
2B: Caleb Broughton 1
3B: Peter Marren 1 ; Logan Kellerman 1
RBI: Jacob Corson 1 ; Chris Cannizzaro 1 ; Peter Marren 3 ; Eunsang Yu 2 ; Logan Kellerman 3
SH: Anthony Sherwin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Caleb Broughton 1 ; Jacob Corson 2 ; Chris Cannizzaro 2 ; Peter Marren 1 ; Eunsang Yu 1 ; Henry Novicki 1 ; Anthony Sherwin 1 ; Kyle Lyons 1
SB: Eunsang Yu 1 ; Kyle Lyons 1
HBP: Caleb Broughton 1 ; Chris Cannizzaro 1 ; Peter Marren 1 ; Henry Novicki 1 ; Grant Voytovich 1
