The Bison baseball team had a turbulent weekend against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. In three games against the team from Bethlehem, the Bison were only able to capture one win. On Saturday, the Bison split a double header before losing a wild extra innings affair on Sunday.

The first game was marked by an impressive five innings tossed by senior Brendan Tuttle ’21. In his five innings of work Tuttle had 11 strikeouts and only allowed a single earned run in his time on the mound. The first game was a great pitching bout between the teams’ two aces, Tuttle and Lehigh’s Ryan Deom. With both pitchers with major league potential, it was an exciting Patriot League matchup.

The Bison took an early 2-0 lead after Caleb Broughton ’21 and Jacob Corson ’24 both crossed home plate. The lead was held for the five innings that Tuttle pitched and he left the game with the Bison leading 2-1.

“I am proud of this team for battling against a good Lehigh team. When we lost the first game most teams would have let that carry over into the second leg of the double header. I think that winning the second game on Saturday says a lot about the character of this team,” Tuttle said.

The Bison, although holding a one run lead late in the game, lost the first game of the double header 5-4 after Lehigh brought in two runs in the bottom of the 7th.

However, the Bison found their groove in the second game of the double header. This was an important win for the Bison, as it was their first of the year. The second game was again marked by great pitching on both sides. Will Greer ’22 was able to pitch well for the Bison as he recorded eight strikeouts in seven innings of work and only allowed five hits in a career high 109 pitches thrown.

The hitting started to open up for the Bison in the top of the 7th inning as hits by Corson, Peter Marren ’21 and Henry Novicki ’23 brought the Bison to a 1-0 lead. Jacob Terwilliger ’23  was able to add a run in the 8th inning and two more runs in the top of the ninth led to a 4-0 Bison lead before moving to the bottom of the ninth. The Mountain Hawks added three runs in the bottom of the frame to make things interesting but two consecutive strikeouts by Andrew Funovits ’22 finished the game and the win for the Bison.

The final game of the weekend was the most wild. If the double header was marked by pitching, the game on Sunday was a hitting affair. With a combined 27 total runs scored, Lehigh was able to win 17-10 in a game that had to go to the 12th inning before it could decide a winner. Impressive hitting performances by the Bison bats were not enough to catch a Lehigh team that caught fire in the top of the 12th. Although Marren and Logan Kellerman ’23 were both able to log three hits and three RBI’s a piece, the game will mostly be remembered for the 16 batters that were hit by a pitch. This shatters an old NCAA record that many thought could never be broken. Lehigh’s leadoff hitter, Eric Cichocki was hit by four different pitches, one shy of the NCAA record for one game.

The Bison hope to get the offensive attack that they had Sunday combined with the pitching they had Saturday moving forward. Next weekend the Bison square off against Army, a very formidable opponent.