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St Bonaventure
3/19/2022 | 12 p.m
Mar. 19 (Sat) / 12 pm
St Bonaventure
History
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – At limiting runs, there are only a handful of pitchers in the nation who are as efficient as senior left-hander Luke Rettig is and he was outstanding again Friday afternoon as the Lehigh baseball team defeated St. Bonaventure, 5-1 Friday afternoon in the series opener at J. David Walker Field.
Rettig went seven strong innings, striking out seven and walking one while allowing just one run (none earned) with five hits. He has given up just one earned run on 28.0 innings of work, equating to a Patriot League- best 0.32 ERA in five appearances. With the victory, the Mountain Hawks (9-6) secure their third straight win, winners of five of their last six games.
“Luke has just been phenomenal [this year],” said head coach Sean Leary. “That was another great example of what you need to get on a Game 1. He just gave us every shot to win and their pitcher also did a nice job. It was 2-1 until the bottom of seventh when we tackled on a little bit, but those two guys were dueling and again Luke came out on top.
“He’s been our leader and it’s really exciting to have that number one pitcher going into league play.”
Lehigh’s offense wasn’t as potent as it was in both mid-week matchups, but still totaled 10 hits with five runs, taking an early lead in the first inning, re-taking the lead in the fifth and putting the nail in the coffin in the seventh by way of senior Gerard Sweeney’s three-run home run to center field.
Sweeney and first-year Jake Whitlinger both went 2-for-4 while Sweeney had three RBIs. Sophomore Tyler Young was a perfect 3-for-3 with an RBI, while Riley Davis tripled.
“I think the key to the ballgame for us offensively was the production we got from Jake [Whitlinger] and Tyler [Young],” said Leary. “There were two situations where they came up with two outs and nobody on and they both produced base hits, time and time again. Jake gets us ahead and Tyler’s set up Sweeney’s three-run homer. It’s tough sometimes in those situations where you might think the inning is over and those two guys turned it over to get us ahead and then to extend the lead. I thought those two guys were the offensive heroes today.”
Three 🆆’s in a row! 🎥#GoLehigh | #RTTR pic.twitter.com/fmxv0NtXnL
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) March 19, 2022 Sophomore right-hander Tyler Thompson picked up right where Rettig left off, throwing the final two innings without giving up a run, allowing just a single hit and retiring six batters to close the door.
Young gave Lehigh the 1-0 lead in the third inning after singling to left field, driving in Davis, who had tripled to right center to lead-off the frame. Young ended up being thrown out at second trying to steal the bag.
St. Bonaventure tied the game up at 1-1 in the top of the fourth inning by way of Matthew Williams’ RBI groundout, but it was Whitlinger who handed the Mountain Hawks the lead back in the fifth inning on his RBI double to right center field, scoring Young to take a 2-1 cushion.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Young singled up the middle and Whitlinger singled to left field to put runners on first and second. On a 1-1 count, Sweeney dialed up his second home run of the week with a bullet to center field, scoring all three runs to pull ahead, 5-1, which proved to be the difference as Thompson closed the ballgame with a pair of dominant innings out of the bullpen. Sweeney has two home runs and eight RBIs this week, playing his first three games since coming back from injury suffered before the very first game of the season.
“Sweeney lengthens our lineup,” Leary said. “We feel really good about our offense and we feel we’ll be challenged when we get into league play, but we feel we have six or seven guys in our lineup that have a chance to drive the ball over the fence at any given moment .Adding him back in and maybe some other guys in the near future just gives us depth.When you have a Justin Butler batting sixth or seventh and leads the league in home runs, it just shows that our lineup has enough talent to have guys bat in those spots.
“I’m excited about where we are and I think we can improve, which is fun.”
With his pair of knocks (and no hits for Rother on the day), Whitlinger took over the team-lead in batting with a season mark of .383. The first-year has 23 hits with five doubles and nine RBIs this year and an OPS of 1,003.
Lehigh continues the series against St Bonaventure with a double header Saturday at noon. The game will not be streamed live, but live stats will be provided.
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.@SeanLeary13’s boys have won five of their last six games. 👀🔥
The 27th-year head coach broke down Friday’s 5-1 home victory over St. Bonaventure. 🗣 pic.twitter.com/ByS1shPexo
— Lehigh Baseball (@LehighBaseball) March 19, 2022
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