Saturday, May 1
Bethlehem, Pa.
12 p.m.
Lehigh University
17-14, 13-8
2
vs
0
Navy
13-11, 8-10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Navy
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
Lehigh
0
0
0
2
0
0
X
2
5
0
Photo by: Hannahally Photography
Mountain Hawks claim season series over Navy with two wins on Senior Day
5/1/2021 7:23:00 PM | Baseball
First regular season series victory over the Mids since 2006
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – In yet another crucial pair of Patriot League contests, the Lehigh baseball team were up to the task once again against Navy, coming out of the day with two victories over the Midshipmen on Senior Day at J. David Walker Field.
Junior right-hander Mason Black spun his first career complete game shutout with seven strong innings, allowing just four hits with four strikeouts in Game 1. In Game 2, it was a gutsy relief effort from senior Matt Svanson, shoving 5.2 shutout innings with just two hits given up and five strikeouts, paired with elite offensive efforts from the likes of Adam Retzbach and Joe Gorla that propelled Lehigh to victory.
With the two wins, Lehigh earns its first season series victory (winning four of five games so far) over the Midshipmen since 2015 and first in the regular season since 2006.
The Mountain Hawks have all but punched their ticket to their first Patriot League Tournament since 2016 and are currently in a tight battle with Army West Point for the regular season title with just one weekend to go in the regular season.
"Naturally we were led by two pretty special pitching performances out of Mason [Black] and Matt [Svanson], but our offense was clutch, our defense made a ton of key plays and it was probably the most complete day we've had this season," said head coach Sean Leary. "I'm proud of them, because we haven't been playing our best baseball the last two weeks in the sense of complete baseball and today they trusted what they've been doing, they executed and did very well."
In the first game, it came down to a pitcher's duel between Black and Navy's Tommy Goodridge and key defensive plays that proved to be the difference as one swing of the bat gave Lehigh the victory against the Mids.
With two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth inning, sophomore Adam Retzbach rocketed a double down the left field line, scoring both Andrew Nole and Gorla to give the Mountain Hawks a 2-0 lead.
Gorla made a tremendous diving grab at third base in the top of the seventh inning to save a baserunner, as Black shut the door to finish his third complete game of the season and earn his sixth victory of the campaign. The righty also struck out four batters, upping his season total to 80, 14 shy from tying Craig Anderson '60's 61-year program record of 94 in a single season.
In the second game, it was the offense of both teams that told the story, as both squads tallied a combined 12 runs on 24 hits.
Like he did in the first game, Retzbach laced almost an identical two-RBI double left center field in the bottom of the first inning, scoring Nole and Gerard Sweeney to put the Mountain Hawks in front first, 2-0.
Navy scored three in the top of the third inning off Lehigh lefty Luke Rettig, capped off by a bases loaded walk to Nico Valdez, pushing the Mids out in front, 3-2.
Retzbach picked up his third RBI of the game, a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Gorla to tie the ballgame back up at 3-3.
Navy took the lead back on an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning, but Gorla answered right back in the bottom half with a two-RBI double down the right field line to push Lehigh ahead, 5-4.
From that point forward, it was all Lehigh's offense as Casey Rother singled up the middle to score Gorla and take a 6-4 lead in the same inning.
Retzbach continued his scorching hot day at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning with an RBI triple to right center, scoring Rother to give the Mountain Hawks a 7-4 advantage. Quinn McKenna drove in Retzbach on the very next play to add an insurance run with Lehigh leading, 8-4.
Svanson finished out his impressive afternoon in relief with three consecutive groundouts in the top of the ninth inning to get his third win of the year and help the Mountain Hawks earn their third consecutive victory.
Retzbach went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and four RBIs, while Gorla went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, two doubles and two RBIs. Despite failing to reach base for the first time in 25 games in Game 1, Casey Rother answered back with three hits in the second game, going 3-for-5 with an RBI.
"Joe's been having a pretty tremendous season and has been willing to play wherever we put him," said Leary. "It isn't easy to play in different positions on the field and in the batting order, but he isn't letting anything impact him. He's doing whatever it takes for the betterment of the team.
"It seemed like whenever we needed a guy to get on base today, it was Joe and Adam that came through for us. As I share often, close games come down to one key defensive play and one key hit and today we got more than one."
For the day on Saturday, Retzbach was 4-for-7 with two doubles, a triple and six RBIs to boot.
Prior to the start of the doubleheader, the program honored seniors Joe Yupp, Eric Cichocki, Sam Wurth, Yash Rane, Matt Svanson and Quinn McKenna with a special Senior Day ceremony.
"This is a very special group," Leary said. "I often say that it's very difficult to do what they do in playing four years of a varsity sport. There's so much going on when you're balancing athletics and academics and a lot of very difficult things. They had every reason to feel sorry for themselves after the way things ended last season and losing the fall and the beginning of this spring and everything was stacked against them.
"But we aren't sitting in the position we are today without their contributions. They've been rock steady as players but they're our leaders. That's a neat thing to have in that each one of them has a role leadership-wise. I sincerely believe that their legacy isn't going to be what their wins and losses are this season, it's going to be the big picture stuff."
Lehigh will close out the weekend with a single game on Sunday at Navy in Annapolis with first pitch set for 2 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.Gallery: (5-1-2021) Lehigh Baseball Senior Day 2021
Junior right-hander Mason Black spun his first career complete game shutout with seven strong innings, allowing just four hits with four strikeouts in Game 1. In Game 2, it was a gutsy relief effort from senior Matt Svanson, shoving 5.2 shutout innings with just two hits given up and five strikeouts, paired with elite offensive efforts from the likes of Adam Retzbach and Joe Gorla that propelled Lehigh to victory.
With the two wins, Lehigh earns its first season series victory (winning four of five games so far) over the Midshipmen since 2015 and first in the regular season since 2006.
The Mountain Hawks have all but punched their ticket to their first Patriot League Tournament since 2016 and are currently in a tight battle with Army West Point for the regular season title with just one weekend to go in the regular season.
"Naturally we were led by two pretty special pitching performances out of Mason [Black] and Matt [Svanson], but our offense was clutch, our defense made a ton of key plays and it was probably the most complete day we've had this season," said head coach Sean Leary. "I'm proud of them, because we haven't been playing our best baseball the last two weeks in the sense of complete baseball and today they trusted what they've been doing, they executed and did very well."
In the first game, it came down to a pitcher's duel between Black and Navy's Tommy Goodridge and key defensive plays that proved to be the difference as one swing of the bat gave Lehigh the victory against the Mids.
With two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth inning, sophomore Adam Retzbach rocketed a double down the left field line, scoring both Andrew Nole and Gorla to give the Mountain Hawks a 2-0 lead.
Gorla made a tremendous diving grab at third base in the top of the seventh inning to save a baserunner, as Black shut the door to finish his third complete game of the season and earn his sixth victory of the campaign. The righty also struck out four batters, upping his season total to 80, 14 shy from tying Craig Anderson '60's 61-year program record of 94 in a single season.
In the second game, it was the offense of both teams that told the story, as both squads tallied a combined 12 runs on 24 hits.
Like he did in the first game, Retzbach laced almost an identical two-RBI double left center field in the bottom of the first inning, scoring Nole and Gerard Sweeney to put the Mountain Hawks in front first, 2-0.
Navy scored three in the top of the third inning off Lehigh lefty Luke Rettig, capped off by a bases loaded walk to Nico Valdez, pushing the Mids out in front, 3-2.
Retzbach picked up his third RBI of the game, a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Gorla to tie the ballgame back up at 3-3.
Navy took the lead back on an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning, but Gorla answered right back in the bottom half with a two-RBI double down the right field line to push Lehigh ahead, 5-4.
From that point forward, it was all Lehigh's offense as Casey Rother singled up the middle to score Gorla and take a 6-4 lead in the same inning.
Retzbach continued his scorching hot day at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning with an RBI triple to right center, scoring Rother to give the Mountain Hawks a 7-4 advantage. Quinn McKenna drove in Retzbach on the very next play to add an insurance run with Lehigh leading, 8-4.
Svanson finished out his impressive afternoon in relief with three consecutive groundouts in the top of the ninth inning to get his third win of the year and help the Mountain Hawks earn their third consecutive victory.
Retzbach went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and four RBIs, while Gorla went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, two doubles and two RBIs. Despite failing to reach base for the first time in 25 games in Game 1, Casey Rother answered back with three hits in the second game, going 3-for-5 with an RBI.
"Joe's been having a pretty tremendous season and has been willing to play wherever we put him," said Leary. "It isn't easy to play in different positions on the field and in the batting order, but he isn't letting anything impact him. He's doing whatever it takes for the betterment of the team.
"It seemed like whenever we needed a guy to get on base today, it was Joe and Adam that came through for us. As I share often, close games come down to one key defensive play and one key hit and today we got more than one."
For the day on Saturday, Retzbach was 4-for-7 with two doubles, a triple and six RBIs to boot.
Prior to the start of the doubleheader, the program honored seniors Joe Yupp, Eric Cichocki, Sam Wurth, Yash Rane, Matt Svanson and Quinn McKenna with a special Senior Day ceremony.
"This is a very special group," Leary said. "I often say that it's very difficult to do what they do in playing four years of a varsity sport. There's so much going on when you're balancing athletics and academics and a lot of very difficult things. They had every reason to feel sorry for themselves after the way things ended last season and losing the fall and the beginning of this spring and everything was stacked against them.
"But we aren't sitting in the position we are today without their contributions. They've been rock steady as players but they're our leaders. That's a neat thing to have in that each one of them has a role leadership-wise. I sincerely believe that their legacy isn't going to be what their wins and losses are this season, it's going to be the big picture stuff."
Lehigh will close out the weekend with a single game on Sunday at Navy in Annapolis with first pitch set for 2 p.m.
Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Black, Mason (6-2)
L: Goodridge, T (5-3)
Batting:
SH: Keller, L. 1
Base Running:
SB: Raba, Z. 1 ; Smith, C. 1
CS: Raba, Z. 1
HBP: Raba, Z. 1
Batting:
2B: Gorla, Joe 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1
RBI: Retzbach, Adam 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Gorla, Joe 1 ; Nole, Andrew 1
CS: Carlson, Chase 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballC
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballC
/ Baseball
1B/RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballIF
/ Baseball
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