Bison baseball faces Lehigh for senior day

Paige Temple, Contributing Writer

The Bison hosted Lehigh this weekend for senior day in the last home series of the regular season. The Orange and Blue went 1-2 in the series but ended on a high note, scoring 20 runs in the game on Sunday for the first time since 2012. 

In game one on senior day, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks took the lead, scoring three runs in the top of the first. The Bison came back strong in the bottom of the inning, bringing in four runs to take the lead. Anthony Sherwin ’24, Chris Cannizzaro ’22 and Grant Voytovich ’24 reached on a walk and two singles, respectively. Voytovich’s single brought home Sherwin, before an RBI groundout by Jacob Corson ’24 scored the Bison’s second run of the inning. Tyler Dunn ’25 singled home Brendan Lowery ’22 all the way from first later on in the inning after a miscue in the outfield by the Mountain Hawks, before designated hitter Mason Kelly ’23 capped off the scoring with an RBI single to score Dunn. 

The Mountain Hawks came out hot, scoring nine unanswered runs following the first, and scoring a run in each of the final four innings. That capped the score for a 14-4 loss on the day. The Bison used four pitchers, with seniors Renn Lints and Luke Allain each making an appearance for the Bison out of the bullpen on Senior Day.   

The Bison lost a close one in the second game despite an astounding outing by freshman pitcher Tyler O’Neill ’25 who threw a career best of 13 strikeouts. Lehigh took an early 1-0 lead off of a home run, but Sherwin touched home in the fourth to tie the game at one run. The Mountain Hawks resigned the lead by one in the fifth, but the Bison answered with an RBI from Kyle Lyons ’23, bringing in Kelly to tie it up at two runs. 

Lehigh took the lead for good in the top of the ninth on an RBI single capping the game at 3-2. Lyons managed the Bison’s only multi-hit day with two hits and two RBIs, while Voytovich, Corson and Logan Kellerman ’22 also added hits. O’Neill tossed another strong outing, with his final line comprising eight innings, two earned runs, six hits allowed and 13 strikeouts.

In the final game of the series, the bats were hot and the Bison brought in 20 runs to win the game 20-3. Cannizzaro went 4-for-5, drove in four runs, and scored four more, and Lowery homered and drove in a career-high four to lead the Bison’s 20-run attack. 

Lowery came up big in the first with a three run homer. The Bison had a big 7-0 cushion to start the game and finished strong scoring 13 more runs. Kendall Pierson ’22 went 3-for-4 with a pair of walks, Voytovich was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, and Sherwin scored four runs. 

Alongside his team next to the plate, Austin Odell ’22 came up big with a terrific performance on the mound. He worked seven innings, allowing just a run on four hits while striking out a career-high eight. Odell improved to 6-2 on the season, including 6-0 against Patriot League teams. 

“Obviously the weekend did not go the way we wanted it to but we ended on a high note with a big win. Hopefully we’ll be able to take that momentum into our midweek at Penn State and carry it all the way through to the weekend so we can finish our season strong against Army,” O’Neill said. 

The Bison certainly brought their momentum to Penn State on Tuesday, beating the Nittany Lions 8-7. Corson, Lyons and Cannizzaro all had big hits to lead the Orange and Blue to the win. Brady Swenson ’25 started on the mound for the Bison, and Lints, Graeme Carroll ’24 and Andrew Funovits ’22 all combined to close the game for the win. 

The Bison finish off the season at Army this coming weekend. 

(Visited 144 times, 1 visits today)