Posted: February 21, 2009
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Lehigh faced another setback on day two of the 2009 season when it dropped its second consecutive game to the Southern Miss. Golden Eagles on Saturday at Pete Taylor Park. The Mountain Hawks gave up five runs in the first inning and never recovered, as they went down, 13-0, to the Golden Eagles.
Andrew Berger drew the task of trying to shut down the Southern Miss. lineup that scored 18 runs in the first game of the season. The junior righty gave up nine runs – only six of them earned – on nine hits and two walks over 2.2 innings before being lifted in the third.
“Andrew really only made four mistakes today,” Lehigh head coach Sean Leary said of his starting pitcher. “But I think they hit all four of them hard.”
Cody Schlagel pitched seven shutout innings for the Golden Eagles, allowing just two hits and striking out two. The Mountain Hawks were held to just three hits in the game, one each by Logan Marshall-Winchester, Kevin Mihalik and Ryan Gajdos. Marshall-Winchester is the only Lehigh player to record a hit in each of the first two games.
Berger gave up RBI singles to James Ewing, Joey Archer, Kameron Brunty and Tyler Koelling in the first. A sacrifice fly by Taylor Walker made it a round five runs charged to Berger before he could escape the inning.
“They hit the ball hard in the first,” Leary said. “They’re a good hitting team and we were behind in counts, and they’re going to make you pay for that.”
Berger bounced back in the second inning, facing only three batters and finishing the frame without giving up a run. However, Southern Miss. got back to its scoring ways by tacking on four more runs in the third inning, chasing Berger from the game with two outs after a Bo Davis triple plated two more runs for the Golden Eagles.
Ken Longernecker pitched 3.1 innings in relief for the Brown and White, slowing the Golden Eagles down by allowing just two unearned runs on five hits. Longernecker struck out four batters but also walked five in relief. Freshman righty Cory Kent finished off the last two innings for Lehigh, allowing two runs on two hits and striking out two batters.
“They both had solid outings for sure,” Leary said. “A lot of guys are getting some good game experience out there, and that’s a plus.”
Southern Miss scored two more runs in the sixth and added a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings as the Golden Eagles rolled to their second straight win. The Mountain Hawks fall to 0-2 on the season while Southern Miss. improves to 2-0.
Lehigh returns to action on Sunday for game three at Southern Miss. Jordan Warncke will take the hill for Lehigh against Scott Copeland at 11 a.m. central time.
“Jordan is a junior who’s making his first start for us so we’re pretty excited for him,” Leary said. “We still feel confident we’re a much better team than we’ve been showing out there.”