March 31, 2009

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - In a first round game of the Liberty Bell Classic held Tuesday at Hank DeVincent Field, La Salle Baseball was defeated by the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, 7-4.

Four Explorers had a pair of hits in the game - TJ Chism, Marc Schoch, Justin Handler, and Zack Feierstein - while they also drew four walks. However, they hit into a pair of double plays and left eight men on base.

They took a first-inning lead thanks to John Malloy. He led off the frame with a hit-by-pitch, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Jeff Flax sac bunt, and then scored on a wild pitch.

Lehigh quickly erased its deficit with three runs in the top of the second. Billy Swenson drove in the first with a single and then scored on two-run homer by Jim McConlogue. They pushed their lead to 5-1 after a Kevin Mihalik two-RBI single in the third.

La Salle responded with a three-spot in the bottom of the third to cut its deficit to 5-4. Chism started the rally with a one-out double, followed by a Schoch walk.

Handler drove home Chism with a double off the left field fence, and Tony Negrin brought home Schoch with a two-out infield single. Handler would come in to score on a double steal, as Negrin stole second. 

Lehigh (6-21-1) - held scoreless by Christian Schulz, who allowed just three hits and struck out three in four innings - added a couple of insurance runs - one in the seventh on a grounder by Mihalik, and another in the eighth on a Mark Bernhard RBI single.

Greg Angelo picked up his first win of the season and is now 1-2 and Ken Longernecker earned the save - his first, while Kevin Christy took the loss, dropping his record to 1-1.

La Salle (9-14) will face Lehigh again on Wednesday, this time in Bethlehem with first pitch at 3:30 PM.