Wednesday, April 14
Bethlehem, Pa.
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
12-9, 0
2
vs
3
Lafayette
7-11, 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Lafayette
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
1
0
3
10
0
Lehigh
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
6
0
Photo by: Hannahally Photography
Rettig's quality start not enough as Mountain Hawks fall to Lafayette
4/14/2021 8:12:00 PM | Baseball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Despite yet another brilliant outing out of junior left-hander Luke Rettig, the Lehigh baseball team fell victim to a two-run seventh inning, falling to Lafayette 3-2 Wednesday afternoon at J. David Walker Field. The Mountain Hawks (12-9, 9-4 PL) already claimed the season series with the Leopards prior to this game, but were not able to capture the season sweep with the defeat.
"We need to continue to build off of the positives we have," said head coach Sean Leary. "Our starting pitching has been outstanding this season. We essentially wasted a great effort by Luke today, so we know what we have, we know what our strength is and it's hard to say to just forget it when you have a tough loss but I still believe in this team.
"This was a tough loss because we didn't compete at the level offensively we needed to today."
After tossing eight innings without allowing an earned run last Wednesday at home against Lafayette, Rettig followed up that performance with a similar one on Wednesday. He threw six scoreless innings and scattered five hits while walking one and striking out a career-high 10 batters.
"Luke was incredible today," said Leary. "That's about as good as you could possibly pitch. The tough part about striking out so many guys is that you're going to run your pitch count up a little bit. He felt OK to go out for the seventh, but it didn't feel like the right thing to do with five weeks to go and the tournament hopefully on the horizon. Two weeks in a row, Luke gave us a chance to win which is a starting pitcher's job. He was terrific."
Lehigh and Lafayette managed to play to a scoreless tie for the first four innings of the contest when the Mountain Hawks finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Reigning Patriot League Player of the Week Casey Rother scorched a single right field, scoring Eric Cichocki to take a 1-0 lead.
With right-hander Sam Wurth pitching in relief of Rettig, the Leopards managed to get three runs off two doubles and a single to take the lead between the seventh and eighth innings to take a 3-1 lead.
Lehigh had one final chance in the ninth to get runs on the board as sophomore Adam Retzbach led off the inning with a home run to right field on a 3-2 count, his fourth of the year to bring the Mountain Hawks within one run at 3-2.
Retzbach went 2-for-4 with his homer and an RBI, while Rother went 1-for-4 with his RBI single.
Wurth was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on five hits over two innings and falls to 1-2 on the year.
Lehigh continues the 2021 campaign with four crucial Patriot League contests over the weekend against Army West Point starting with a noon doubleheader at Walker Field on Saturday and another doubleheader in West Point on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
"We need to continue to build off of the positives we have," said head coach Sean Leary. "Our starting pitching has been outstanding this season. We essentially wasted a great effort by Luke today, so we know what we have, we know what our strength is and it's hard to say to just forget it when you have a tough loss but I still believe in this team.
"This was a tough loss because we didn't compete at the level offensively we needed to today."
After tossing eight innings without allowing an earned run last Wednesday at home against Lafayette, Rettig followed up that performance with a similar one on Wednesday. He threw six scoreless innings and scattered five hits while walking one and striking out a career-high 10 batters.
"Luke was incredible today," said Leary. "That's about as good as you could possibly pitch. The tough part about striking out so many guys is that you're going to run your pitch count up a little bit. He felt OK to go out for the seventh, but it didn't feel like the right thing to do with five weeks to go and the tournament hopefully on the horizon. Two weeks in a row, Luke gave us a chance to win which is a starting pitcher's job. He was terrific."
Lehigh and Lafayette managed to play to a scoreless tie for the first four innings of the contest when the Mountain Hawks finally broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Reigning Patriot League Player of the Week Casey Rother scorched a single right field, scoring Eric Cichocki to take a 1-0 lead.
With right-hander Sam Wurth pitching in relief of Rettig, the Leopards managed to get three runs off two doubles and a single to take the lead between the seventh and eighth innings to take a 3-1 lead.
Lehigh had one final chance in the ninth to get runs on the board as sophomore Adam Retzbach led off the inning with a home run to right field on a 3-2 count, his fourth of the year to bring the Mountain Hawks within one run at 3-2.
Chase Carlson singled with one away but back-to-back outs from Quinn McKenna and Cichocki ended the Lehigh rally and the ballgame.What a shot 👀 Fourth homer of the season for Retzbach just cleared the right field wall!#GoLehigh | #RTTR pic.twitter.com/BOAPollJ8r
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 14, 2021
Retzbach went 2-for-4 with his homer and an RBI, while Rother went 1-for-4 with his RBI single.
Wurth was charged with the loss after allowing three runs on five hits over two innings and falls to 1-2 on the year.
Lehigh continues the 2021 campaign with four crucial Patriot League contests over the weekend against Army West Point starting with a noon doubleheader at Walker Field on Saturday and another doubleheader in West Point on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Yoder, Jordan (3-2)
L: Wurth, Sam (1-2)
S: Morr, Nolan (1)
Batting:
2B: Johnson, Justin 1 ; Ingram, Seif 1 ; Fadio, Blaze 1
RBI: Grech, Justin 1 ; Ingram, Seif 1 ; Fadio, Blaze 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ciuffreda, Pete 1 ; Savage, Zach 1 ; Fadio, Blaze 1
SB: Grech, Justin 1 ; Ciuffreda, Pete 1
Batting:
HR: Retzbach, Adam 1
RBI: Rother, Casey 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1
SH: McKenna, Quinn 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cichocki , Eric 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1
HBP: Cichocki , Eric 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
lf/1b
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
IF
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OF
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LHP
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