Saturday, May 30
Baton Rouge, La.
4 p.m.
Lehigh University
25-31
3
vs
15
Tulane
35-24
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Lehigh
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
5
0
Tulane
1
0
0
7
2
0
5
0
X
15
13
2
Lehigh’s season comes to a close with NCAA Regional loss to Tulane
5/30/2015 11:28:00 PM | Baseball
BATON ROUGE, La. - The Lehigh baseball team saw its successful 2015 season come to a close Saturday evening as the fourth-seeded Mountain Hawks fell 15-3 to third-seeded Tulane in an elimination game of the Baton Rouge Regional at LSU's Alex Box Stadium. The Mountain Hawks end their season at 25-31 overall. Lehigh made its second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance after earning the Patriot League Championship in mid-May.
"This was a special group of players," said head coach Sean Leary. "There will be happy times and sad times, but when those sad times come in May or June that's a sign of a successful season. We wanted to be in a situation where we were competing against the best in the country. I'm grateful for our group of seniors and I'm awfully proud of how they competed."
The game marked the final contest in brown and white for nine Mountain Hawk seniors: Justin Pacchioli, John Elson, Nick Macaione, J.R. Edwards, Connor Faust, Nick Stephens, Tim McKay, Patrick Walshe and Jordan Smith. The group of nine helped lead Lehigh to back-to-back Patriot League Championship appearances in 2014 and 2015 and the Mountain Hawks' first league crown since 2006.
"We were happy to be here and we had a great year," said Pacchioli. "It didn't start off the way we wanted it to in the beginning, but to win the Patriot League and get a chance to come down here and play in front of 10,000 people at LSU was an experience that I'll remember for a lifetime."
The Mountain Hawks, the visiting team, struck right away in the top of the first inning when sophomore Jacen Nalesnik and junior Mike Garzillo sent back-to-back one-out doubles to right field. The Tulane right fielder Lex Kaplan then dropped a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Patrick Donnelly to score Nalesnik and put Lehigh's first run on the board. Elson then worked a full count before ripping a two-run single up the middle to plate Garzillo and Donnelly and give the Mountain Hawks a 3-0 lead through the first half inning.
The Green Wave answered back in the bottom of the frame as Tulane recorded back-to-back one-out singles before a two-out double off the bat of Hunter Williams scored the first Tulane run. The Green Wave loaded the bases, but Lehigh senior starter Nick Stephens worked out of the jam to limit the damage and keep Lehigh ahead 3-1 at the end of one.
Tulane threatened and loaded the bases once again in the bottom of the second, but Stephens caught Tyler Wilson looking to end the inning and keep Lehigh ahead 3-1. Green Wave starter Corey Merrill kept Lehigh off the board for the next two innings before Tulane put together a big seven-run bottom of the fourth. The Green Wave sent ten batters to the plate with the help of two walks, two hit batsmen and four hits, including a three-run double off the bat of Jake Rogers that gave Tulane an 8-3 lead through four.
The game went into a lightning delay with a Tulane runner on first with no outs in the bottom of the fifth. After a three hour and 16 minute delay, the game resumed just after 8 p.m. local time as junior Kevin Long took the mound for Lehigh. The Green Wave used a sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout to extend their lead to 10-3 through five innings.
Lehigh wasn't able to get anything off Tulane reliever Tim Yandel and the Green Wave kept up its hot-hitting to put up five more runs and capture the 15-3 victory. Pacchioli and Donnelly added doubles against Yandel as Lehigh finished with five hits.
Stephens took the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings as he finishes his senior campaign at 4-7.
Wilson and Rogers combined to drive in seven runs to lead Tulane, while Garrett Deschamp and Richard Carthon both had two hits and three runs scored.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: MERRILL, Corey (5-6)
L: Stephens, Nick (4-7)
S: YANDEL, Tim (1)
Batting:
2B: Pacchioli, Justin 1 ; Nalesnik, Jacen 1 ; Garzillo, Mike 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1
RBI: Donnelly, Patrick 1 ; Elson, John 2
SF: Donnelly, Patrick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nalesnik, Jacen 1 ; Garzillo, Mike 1 ; Donnelly, Patrick 1
CS: Pacchioli, Justin 1
Batting:
2B: WILLIAMS, Hunter 1 ; ROGERS, Jake 1
RBI: DESCHAMP, Garrett 1 ; KAPLAN, Lex 2 ; WILSON, Tyler 4 ; WILLIAMS, Hunter 2 ; HOPE, Hunter 1 ; ROGERS, Jake 3
SH: ALEMAIS, Stephen 1
SF: DESCHAMP, Garrett 1 ; WILSON, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ALEMAIS, Stephen 2 ; DESCHAMP, Garrett 3 ; KAPLAN, Lex 2 ; WILSON, Tyler 1 ; WILLIAMS, Hunter 1 ; JOHNSON, Jackson 1 ; HOPE, Hunter 1 ; ROGERS, Jake 1 ; CARTHON, Richard 3
SB: ALEMAIS, Stephen 1 ; CARTHON, Richard 2
HBP: DESCHAMP, Garrett 1 ; KAPLAN, Lex 3
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
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