Wednesday, April 7
Bethlehem, Pa.
3 p.m.
Lehigh University
10-7, 0
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Photo by: Hannahally Photography
Lehigh walks off, beats Lafayette in extras to claim season series
4/7/2021 9:23:00 PM | Baseball
At 7-2 in Patriot League, Mountain Hawks off to best start in program history
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Capped off by a Casey Rother walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Lehigh baseball team won a wild, 7-6 ballgame over archrival Lafayette in extra innings at J. David Walker Field to earn its third victory of the season against the Leopards (4-9, 3-7 PL), taking the season series. The win gives the Mountain Hawks (10-7, 7-2 PL) their third consecutive series victory to open the 2021 league slate.
Lehigh's 7-2 record in Patriot League play to open the 2021 season is the best start in program history since the creation of the Patriot League in 1991.
Despite a strong outing from junior left-hander Luke Rettig where he went eight innings, allowing four hits on four runs, none earned with seven strikeouts and a walk, the Mountain Hawks lost the lead in the top of the ninth with two outs on a two-run double, but took advantage of two clutch hits from Gerard Sweeney and Rother to come away with the walk-off win, Lehigh's second of the season with that outcome.
"Luke was definitely our hero of the day," said head coach Sean Leary. "We had one sloppy inning behind him that happens in baseball, but he just put that behind him and got us through the eighth inning. Honestly, that's where we won the ballgame. Even though Lafayette scrapped back, Luke was the guy who gave us the victory today. That takes a tough mindset to overcome an inning like that. I don't know if I've ever quite seen that many mis-plays in a row.
"But he focused up and gave us a shot to come back and even though they tied it, he kept us in it for us to have a chance to win."
The Mountain Hawks struck gold first in the top of the first inning when junior Joe Gorla doubled to right center field, scoring Eric Cichocki to take a 1-0 lead.
Three straight errors by the Lehigh defense in the top of the third inning had the bases loaded and two outs for the Leopards and a three-run single to center field put Lafayette up 3-1. The score became 4-1 the very next batter as Dylan Minghini singled to left field and advanced to second on the throw, scoring Pete Ciuffreda. All four of the Lafayette runs in the inning were unearned for Rettig by way of the Lehigh errors.
Minghini had a difficult time hanging onto the baseball in the fourth inning as Quinn McKenna scored Lehigh's second run of the game on a passed ball. In the same inning, the same outcome occurred as Rother walked and the ball ran away from the catcher, scoring Cichocki to make it a 4-3 game.
Nole, who was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week for his outstanding weekend against Navy, notched a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring Gorla and Sweeney to put the Mountain Hawks on top, 6-4.
With Ryan Deom in the game to earn the save in the top of the ninth, the sophomore quickly retired the first two Leopards that came to the plate, but two consecutive singles put runners on first and second and an Ethan Stern double with two outs scored both runs, as Lafayette tied the game up at 6-6.
Ben Christian started the top of the 10th inning for the Mountain Hawks and walked two batters with one out before Will Grisack took over, getting the final two outs and leaving the game tied heading into the bottom half.
Sweeney's double led things off with a bang in the inning and Rother delivered his first-career walk-off hit with a single to left field to give Lehigh the 7-6 victory on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.
"I wouldn't say today was pretty, but Rivalry wins are big and league wins are big for us."
Seven of Lehigh's nine members of the starting lineup registered at least one hit, as Rother went 2-for-4 with two walks and an RBI. Retzbach went 2-for-5 with a double and Nole went 1-for-2 with a run scored, two walks and two RBIs.
Grisack, who pitched the final 0.2 innings of relief in the 10th inning, earned his first career victory to improve to 1-0 on the season with a 0.00 ERA.
Lehigh will turn its attention to a three-game weekend series with Bucknell on Saturday in Lewisburg for two games and Sunday at Walker Field for a single game at 2 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Gallery: (4-7-2021) Baseball vs. Lafayette, 4/7/2021
Lehigh's 7-2 record in Patriot League play to open the 2021 season is the best start in program history since the creation of the Patriot League in 1991.
Despite a strong outing from junior left-hander Luke Rettig where he went eight innings, allowing four hits on four runs, none earned with seven strikeouts and a walk, the Mountain Hawks lost the lead in the top of the ninth with two outs on a two-run double, but took advantage of two clutch hits from Gerard Sweeney and Rother to come away with the walk-off win, Lehigh's second of the season with that outcome.
"Luke was definitely our hero of the day," said head coach Sean Leary. "We had one sloppy inning behind him that happens in baseball, but he just put that behind him and got us through the eighth inning. Honestly, that's where we won the ballgame. Even though Lafayette scrapped back, Luke was the guy who gave us the victory today. That takes a tough mindset to overcome an inning like that. I don't know if I've ever quite seen that many mis-plays in a row.
"But he focused up and gave us a shot to come back and even though they tied it, he kept us in it for us to have a chance to win."
The Mountain Hawks struck gold first in the top of the first inning when junior Joe Gorla doubled to right center field, scoring Eric Cichocki to take a 1-0 lead.
Three straight errors by the Lehigh defense in the top of the third inning had the bases loaded and two outs for the Leopards and a three-run single to center field put Lafayette up 3-1. The score became 4-1 the very next batter as Dylan Minghini singled to left field and advanced to second on the throw, scoring Pete Ciuffreda. All four of the Lafayette runs in the inning were unearned for Rettig by way of the Lehigh errors.
Minghini had a difficult time hanging onto the baseball in the fourth inning as Quinn McKenna scored Lehigh's second run of the game on a passed ball. In the same inning, the same outcome occurred as Rother walked and the ball ran away from the catcher, scoring Cichocki to make it a 4-3 game.
In the bottom of the fifth, Andrew Nole scored on a passed ball, Minghini's third in two innings to tie the game up at 4-4On ☁ 9️⃣ after a 7-6 win over Lafayette!#GoLehigh | #RTTR pic.twitter.com/f8xsiTlZLb
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 8, 2021
Nole, who was named Patriot League Rookie of the Week for his outstanding weekend against Navy, notched a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring Gorla and Sweeney to put the Mountain Hawks on top, 6-4.
With Ryan Deom in the game to earn the save in the top of the ninth, the sophomore quickly retired the first two Leopards that came to the plate, but two consecutive singles put runners on first and second and an Ethan Stern double with two outs scored both runs, as Lafayette tied the game up at 6-6.
Ben Christian started the top of the 10th inning for the Mountain Hawks and walked two batters with one out before Will Grisack took over, getting the final two outs and leaving the game tied heading into the bottom half.
Sweeney's double led things off with a bang in the inning and Rother delivered his first-career walk-off hit with a single to left field to give Lehigh the 7-6 victory on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.
"We've had such a unique layoff in between games this season and a guy like Billy Grisack comes in who hasn't thrown in three weeks and he makes five or six quality pitches," said Leary. "There were some key plays late and we were resilient, even though we knew we had to play a sharp game. At the end, if you have one more run and you get a win, you can still build off it.WALK IT OFF! 😤
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) April 7, 2021
Casey Rother brings in Gerard Sweeney on the RBI single and the Mountain Hawks win it in 10, 7-6 and take the series from Lafayette!#GoLehigh | #RTTR pic.twitter.com/Lk4NHgp5uI
"I wouldn't say today was pretty, but Rivalry wins are big and league wins are big for us."
Seven of Lehigh's nine members of the starting lineup registered at least one hit, as Rother went 2-for-4 with two walks and an RBI. Retzbach went 2-for-5 with a double and Nole went 1-for-2 with a run scored, two walks and two RBIs.
Grisack, who pitched the final 0.2 innings of relief in the 10th inning, earned his first career victory to improve to 1-0 on the season with a 0.00 ERA.
Lehigh will turn its attention to a three-game weekend series with Bucknell on Saturday in Lewisburg for two games and Sunday at Walker Field for a single game at 2 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Grisack, Will (1-0)
L: Ciccone,Jacob (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Stern, Ethan 1 ; Minghini, Dylan 2
RBI: Stern, Ethan 2 ; Ciuffreda, Pete 3 ; Minghini, Dylan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Grech, Justin 2 ; Stern, Ethan 1 ; Johnson, Justin 1 ; Ciuffreda, Pete 1 ; Chmielewski, Kyle 1
HBP: Ciuffreda, Pete 1
Batting:
2B: Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1
RBI: Rother, Casey 1 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Nole, Andrew 2
SH: Young, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cichocki , Eric 2 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Nole, Andrew 1 ; McKenna, Quinn 1
SB: Cichocki , Eric 1 ; McKenna, Quinn 1
CS: McKenna, Quinn 1
HBP: Cichocki , Eric 1 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Gorla, Joe 1 ; Davis, Riley 1
Game Leaders
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Players Mentioned
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