Saturday, May 7
West Point, N.Y.
2:05 p.m.
Lehigh University
24-21, 10-12
3
at
10
Army West Point
25-20, 16-6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Lehigh
0
0
0
0
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0
1
3
8
2
Army West Point
5
0
1
1
0
3
X
10
12
0
Photo by: Lisa Stamford
Mountain Hawks a Win from PLT After Saturday Split at Army West Point
5/7/2022 11:20:00 PM | Baseball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Lehigh baseball team turned in an impressive performance in the nightcap, taking the final game of the season series against Army West Point, 12-5, settling for the doubleheader split at Doubleday Field on Saturday afternoon into the night. The Mountain Hawks (25-21, 11-12 PL) have won 25 games in a season for the first time since 2016 and are just one win over Holy Cross away from clinching a spot into the Patriot League Tournament for the second straight year.
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Lehigh will claim the No. 3 seed in the PLT with a sweep over the Crusaders on Sunday or with one win and one Lafayette loss to Army West Point. The Mountain Hawks will be the No. 4 seed if they fall in both games to Holy Cross and Army sweeps Lafayette.
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Senior Casey Rother and Gerard Sweeney both hit .500 (4-for-8) between the two games on Saturday, while Rother had a home run and four RBIs to pace the offense. With his four hits, Rother became just the fifth player in program history to tally 70 hits in a single season. Both first year Jake Whitlinger and senior Joe Gorla registered a trio of base hits, while sophomore Drew Morse had two hits after earning the start in the second game of the day.
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On the mound in the second game, Tyler Thompson (1-1) earned the victory after throwing 3.2 innings with two strikeouts and three earned runs. Senior Nick Pave was excellent, striking out two batters over 2.2 shutout innings of relief.
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Army scored the first seven runs of the first game to get out to a 7-0 cushion. In the top of the fifth inning, Rother homered to left field, driving in a couple runs to cut into the deficit, 7-2. Rother's blast was his ninth of the season, knotting him with teammate Adam Retzbach for the Patriot League lead.
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The Black Knights added three insurance runs in the sixth inning to take a 10-2 lead.
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Rother tallied his third RBI of the game in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly to left field as the Mountain Hawks made it a 10-3 ballgame, which proved to be the final score.
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Both Rother and Sweeney went 2-for-3 in the defeat, while Ben Christian (2-5) was dealt the loss in his start.
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In Game 2, Lehigh also scored the first seven runs of the game – all in the second inning – to take a 7-0 lead.
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Morse walked with the bases loaded in the second inning to give the Mountain Hawks an early 1-0 lead. Three straight singles – including a two-run knock from Jake Whitlinger – with RBI singles from Sweeney and Rother gave Lehigh a 5-0 advantage in the second inning. Retzbach's sacrifice fly to center field gave Lehigh a 6-0 lead and Gorla laced a double to right-center to push the Mountain Hawks ahead 7-0.
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The Black Knights scored four runs between the third and fourth innings to come back within three runs at 7-4. In the top of the seventh, a bases loaded walk and a run on a wild pitch made it 9-4.
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Nick Manesis homered to right field in the seventh inning to make it 9-5, but an RBI single off the bat of Riley Davis in the eighth made it 10-5 and Sweeney's two-run single in the ninth allowed the Mountain Hawks to take a 12-5 victory.
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Six Mountain Hawks – Whitlinger, Sweeney, Rother, Gorla, Tyler Young and Davis – had two hits, while Morse went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs with two walks.
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Rother heads into the final day of the regular season on a 16-game hitting streak and a 23-game reached base streak. He is second in the Patriot League in batting average (.374), two points behind Holy Cross' Nick Wang (.376) and is first in RBIs (48) and tied for first in homers (9), putting him in a good position to compete for Lehigh's first Hitting Triple Crown since Matt McBride in 2006.
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Young has reached base safely in 22 straight games, while Whitlinger has a reached base streak of 16 consecutive.
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Both of Sunday's games against the Crusaders at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
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Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
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Lehigh will claim the No. 3 seed in the PLT with a sweep over the Crusaders on Sunday or with one win and one Lafayette loss to Army West Point. The Mountain Hawks will be the No. 4 seed if they fall in both games to Holy Cross and Army sweeps Lafayette.
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Senior Casey Rother and Gerard Sweeney both hit .500 (4-for-8) between the two games on Saturday, while Rother had a home run and four RBIs to pace the offense. With his four hits, Rother became just the fifth player in program history to tally 70 hits in a single season. Both first year Jake Whitlinger and senior Joe Gorla registered a trio of base hits, while sophomore Drew Morse had two hits after earning the start in the second game of the day.
Â
On the mound in the second game, Tyler Thompson (1-1) earned the victory after throwing 3.2 innings with two strikeouts and three earned runs. Senior Nick Pave was excellent, striking out two batters over 2.2 shutout innings of relief.
Â
Army scored the first seven runs of the first game to get out to a 7-0 cushion. In the top of the fifth inning, Rother homered to left field, driving in a couple runs to cut into the deficit, 7-2. Rother's blast was his ninth of the season, knotting him with teammate Adam Retzbach for the Patriot League lead.
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The Black Knights added three insurance runs in the sixth inning to take a 10-2 lead.
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Rother tallied his third RBI of the game in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly to left field as the Mountain Hawks made it a 10-3 ballgame, which proved to be the final score.
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Both Rother and Sweeney went 2-for-3 in the defeat, while Ben Christian (2-5) was dealt the loss in his start.
Â
In Game 2, Lehigh also scored the first seven runs of the game – all in the second inning – to take a 7-0 lead.
Â
Morse walked with the bases loaded in the second inning to give the Mountain Hawks an early 1-0 lead. Three straight singles – including a two-run knock from Jake Whitlinger – with RBI singles from Sweeney and Rother gave Lehigh a 5-0 advantage in the second inning. Retzbach's sacrifice fly to center field gave Lehigh a 6-0 lead and Gorla laced a double to right-center to push the Mountain Hawks ahead 7-0.
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The Black Knights scored four runs between the third and fourth innings to come back within three runs at 7-4. In the top of the seventh, a bases loaded walk and a run on a wild pitch made it 9-4.
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Nick Manesis homered to right field in the seventh inning to make it 9-5, but an RBI single off the bat of Riley Davis in the eighth made it 10-5 and Sweeney's two-run single in the ninth allowed the Mountain Hawks to take a 12-5 victory.
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Six Mountain Hawks – Whitlinger, Sweeney, Rother, Gorla, Tyler Young and Davis – had two hits, while Morse went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs with two walks.
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Rother heads into the final day of the regular season on a 16-game hitting streak and a 23-game reached base streak. He is second in the Patriot League in batting average (.374), two points behind Holy Cross' Nick Wang (.376) and is first in RBIs (48) and tied for first in homers (9), putting him in a good position to compete for Lehigh's first Hitting Triple Crown since Matt McBride in 2006.
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Young has reached base safely in 22 straight games, while Whitlinger has a reached base streak of 16 consecutive.
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Both of Sunday's games against the Crusaders at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field will be streamed live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
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Like Lehigh Baseball on Facebook, follow on Twitter and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: EARLY, Connelly (6-3)
L: Christian, Ben (2-5)
Batting:
HR: Rother, Casey 1
RBI: Rother, Casey 3
SF: Rother, Casey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Whitlinger, Jake 1 ; Rother, Casey 1 ; Morse, Drew 1
HBP: Whitlinger, Jake 1
Batting:
2B: RUTA, Sam 1 ; FRIEDRICK, Ross 1
HR: MANESIS, Nick 1
RBI: RUTA, Sam 1 ; MANESIS, Nick 3 ; FRIEDRICK, Ross 2 ; BERG, Derek 1 ; MACIAS, Carter 1 ; GOLINSKI, Braden 1
SF: MANESIS, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: MEADE, Hunter 1 ; DUBRULE, Kevin 1 ; RUTA, Sam 2 ; MANESIS, Nick 2 ; FRIEDRICK, Ross 1 ; BERG, Derek 1 ; TITUS, Coleson 2
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
3
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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