Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Lehigh
Army Falls Twice To Lehigh On Monday
April 25, 2011 | Softball
Box Score (Game 1)
Box Score (Game 2)
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Army's softball team threatened in its final Patriot League doubleheader at Lehigh, but the Mountain Hawks made early leads stand in sweeping the Black Knights, 5-2 and 4-1, Monday afternoon at Kaufman Field.
Lehigh clinched a berth to the conference tournament with its first win of the day en route to improving to 26-19 overall and 11-4 to rank second in the league standings. The Black Knights, slipping to 23-21 and 6-10, hold a two-game lead over Bucknell (4-12), who they host in a four-game series next weekend. The Bison were swept by Lafayette today as the Leopards took three of the four-game series.
League-leader Colgate, clinching a playoff berth Sunday, suffered a 10-7 loss to Holy Cross in the final game of the series to stand 13-2. The Crusaders (9-7), who also clinched a berth to the tournament, closedout league play this weekend against Lehigh, and Colgate hosts Lafayette (4-12).
Lehigh scored three unearned runs in the top of the first inning in the opener, capitalizing on three hits and a pair of Army errors. The Black Knights answered with a run in the home half of the first inning on Alex Reynolds' run-scoring single with one out to left field chasing home Amanda Nguyen, who beat out a bunt and stole second base. Winner Kelsey Lee struck out the next batter for the second out, and after putting the tying run on base with a walk, nipped Army's rally with a strikeout.
After being touched for a pair of runs in the top of the second inning that stretched the Mountain Hawks advantage to 5-1, freshman hurler Haley Pypes threw shutout ball over the final five innings. She scattered four hits over those frames, along with stranding seven batters, after being touched for five hits over the first two innings. The right-hander got out a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fifth inning on back-to-back foul ball popups.
Army added a run in the fourth when Rachael Duval, who tripled, scored on Marina Northup's single to right center field with two outs as Army drew to 5-2. Reanna Johnson followed with a single, but Lee ended Army's threat with a groundout to the third baseman.
The Black Knights threatened in the fifth and seventh innings with runners at first and second base, but Lee ended Army's hopes on a flyout to left field and strikeout swinging, respectively.
Lee and Pypes both yielded nine hits over seven innings in the circle with Johnson and Reynolds each collecting two hits in three at-bats.
The first inning of the nightcap was a duplicate of the first game with Lehigh scoring three runs in the top of the first inning and Army scoring a run on Reynolds RBI single driving in Nguyen in the home half to trail 3-1.
The Mountain Hawks scored a run in the second inning to pull ahead 4-1. Once again Pypes, touched for both losses in going the distance to slip to 11-11, shut down the Mountain Hawks over the final five frames scattering two of her six hits over that span.
Lehigh pitcher Ashley Quigley, who went the distance on a five-hitter, allowed Army into scoring position only once after yielding the run in the first inning. After retiring six of the seven battering she faced over the second and third frames, Quigley got in to a jam in the bottom of the fourth with runners at second and third. With the tying run at home plate, the freshman hurler nipped Army's rally by inducing the batter to fly out to left field en route to retiring nine of the next 10 batters she faced.
Reynolds collected a pair of hits in both games, going 4-for-7 with two runs batted in to stretch her team-high RBI to 41 and career total to 58, which is seven shy of breaking into Army's all-time top 10 list. Johnson was 3-for-6 and Nguyen scored two of Army's three runs.
The Black Knights open an eight-game home slate Tuesday hosting Mid-Hudson rival Marist in a non-league doubleheader starting 5 p.m. at the Army Softball Complex. Army closes out conference play this weekend hosting Bucknell in a pivotal four-game series in looking to clinch the final fourth spot to the league tournament.
