Lehigh University
17-16, 5-7
Navy
15-19, 6-10
Retzbach’s extra-inning heroics caps Lehigh’s wild win at Navy; Game 2 suspended in sixth
4/16/2022 7:46:00 PM | Baseball
A pair of Mountain Hawks (17-16, 5-7 PL) registered four-hit games in senior Casey Rother (4-for-6) and junior Adam Retzbach (4-for-5). The former finished a triple shy of the cycle with a single, double and homer in the win while the latter also was a triple shy of the cycle with two singles, a double and a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning. Sophomore Tyler Young continued his hot streak with a 3-for-5 day and four RBIs, while first-year Sam Holtz went 2-for-4 and two RBIs with his first career home run.
On the mound, control was an issue for most of the Lehigh battery with a combined seven hit by pitches and six walks, allowing a total of 11 earned runs.
The Mountain Hawks started the scoring in the first inning of the first game with Retzbach's RBI single to left field, scoring Whitlinger to take an early 1-0 lead. He advanced to second and to third base on the error to get back into scoring position.
Navy scored five times off three hits in the bottom of the first off of Rettig, taking a 5-1 lead.
Lehigh took back the lead following seven unanswered runs from the second to the top of the fifth innings, led off by Young's RBI triple to center field and Sam Holtz's grounder to short which brought home Young to cut into the Navy lead, 5-3 in the second inning.
In the third, Gerard Sweeney singled through the right side, scoring Rother and advancing Retzbach to second base to make it a 5-4 lead for the Midshipmen. Andrew Nole reached on an error by the first baseman and Retzbach came around to score to tie the game up at 5-5. Young closed the three-run third inning with a go-ahead RBI double down the left field line to score Sweeney and push the Mountain Hawks in front, 6-5.
Solo home runs from Rother in the fourth and Holtz in the fifth had the Mountain Hawks in front, 8-5.
Navy fought back with two runs in the fifth inning to come within a run again, 8-7 following Alex Smith's RBI single to center and then Colin Smith was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in a run.
That's when a wild sixth inning for both sides occurred, led off by four runs for the Mountain Hawks and started by a bases loaded walk to Nole to take a 9-7 lead. Young banged his second double of the game to left center field, driving in a pair to give Lehigh an 11-7 cushion and then Chase Carlson's sacrifice-fly to left field brought in Nole to score to pad the lead at 12-7.
Facing a combination of Nick Pave and Tyler Thompson in the sixth inning, the Mids scored five runs on a walk, hit by pitch and three-run double courtesy of the red-hot Colin Smith to tie the game up at 12-12.
After two scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth into extra innings, the moment of the game came in the top of the ninth inning as Retzbach launched a solo homer down the left field line to put the Mountain Hawks ahead, 13-12 which proved to be the winning run.
Retzbach, who had the go-ahead home run in the first game, led off the second with a three-run shot to left field before the game was called due to lightning in the area in the top of the sixth inning, with the Mids ahead 5-3. Game 2 will resume at 1 p.m. Easter Sunday on ESPN+ (subscription required). Game 3 will not be streamed, but live stats will be provided.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Rother, Casey (1-0)
L: Jorgenson, Nolan (3-1)
Batting:
2B: Whitlinger, Jake 1 ; Rother, Casey 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Young, Tyler 2
3B: Young, Tyler 1
HR: Rother, Casey 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Holtz, Sam 1
RBI: Rother, Casey 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 2 ; Sweeney, Gerard 1 ; Nole, Andrew 2 ; Young, Tyler 4 ; Holtz, Sam 2 ; Carlson, Chase 1
SF: Carlson, Chase 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Whitlinger, Jake 1 ; Rother, Casey 3 ; Retzbach, Adam 3 ; Sweeney, Gerard 2 ; Nole, Andrew 2 ; Young, Tyler 1 ; Holtz, Sam 1
HBP: Whitlinger, Jake 1 ; Retzbach, Adam 1 ; Holtz, Sam 1
Batting:
2B: Smith, Colin 2 ; Diaz, Eduardo 1
RBI: Raba, Zane 1 ; Smith, Colin 4 ; Keller, Logan 1 ; Diaz, Eduardo 1 ; Smith, Alex 1 ; Stevens, Zach 1 ; Burch, Nick 1 ; Aguirre, Ivan 1 ; Lehnertz, Hudson 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Raba, Zane 2 ; Policelli, Christian 1 ; Keller, Logan 2 ; Diaz, Eduardo 3 ; Smith, Alex 2 ; Burch, Nick 1 ; Lehnertz, Hudson 1
HBP: Raba, Zane 2 ; Smith, Colin 1 ; Policelli, Christian 1 ; Diaz, Eduardo 1 ; Stevens, Zach 1 ; Burch, Nick 1
