Bison Baseball took on a three-game series against Lehigh, splitting the doubleheader on Saturday and dropping game three on Sunday. The Bison started the series with a 7-3 victory via a complete game pitched by Tyler O’Neill ʼ25, then fell 5-4 and 14-4 in games two and three, respectively.
O’Neill, who was awarded Patriot League Pitcher of the Week, was lights out for six innings until allowing a single and a home run in the seventh in game one. O’Neill had three strikeouts but worked nine groundouts and seven flyouts. Junior Michael Trommer’s fourth home run of the season helped get the Bison off to a strong start with a four-run first inning. Tyler Dunn ʼ25 homered later on in the game for his third of the season. Dunn extended his on-base streak to 31 games, reaching base five times on Saturday and hitting an RBI single on Sunday. Going into the weekend, Dunn led the Patriot League in walks, and he added three more. With a hit in each game, Billy Kender ʼ25 extended his on-base streak to 20. Chris Morabito ʼ27 had a hit in each game, one of which was his fourth triple of the season, bringing him to the second-most triples in the Patriot League.
In the first inning, Dunn walked and Trommer hit a two-run homer. Kender walked and junior Ryan Facinelli’s double put two runners in scoring position. Morabito brought them both home with a line drive to the right-center gap for a 4-0 first-inning score. Dunn homered in the fourth inning, and Karp extended the lead with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, bringing the final score to a 7-3 success.
Game two resulted in a 5-4 loss for the Bison. Karp’s sacrifice fly in the second inning gave the Bison a brief early lead, but Lehigh responded with three runs. Ben Magovern ʼ25 started the game on the mound, letting up four runs and 10 hits, but stranded six runners and struck out five batters to keep the Bison within reach. Magovern got out of a second-inning jam with a 1-2-3 double play off a weak grounder hit back to him. The Orange and Blue came back from an early 4-1 deficit with sophomore Luke Nascimento’s double to tie the game 4-4, but a solo home run gave the Mountain Hawks the win. Nick Mulvey ʼ25 was credited the loss despite allowing only one hit, which was a home run, in 3.2 innings of work.
The Bison fell 14-4 in game three of the matchup. The Bison started strong with a three-run first inning, but the Mountain Hawks quickly put up nine runs in the first three innings, adding five more runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Dunn’s RBI single tied the game 4-4, and Facinelli and Morabito drove in runs in the first-inning rally. AJ Murray ʼ28 tossed 2.2 scoreless innings on the mound, allowing three hits but stranding all three runners and striking out four batters.
The Bison dropped their last non-league game to Villanova on Tuesday, April 22, with an 11-1 seven-inning decision. Michael Chiaravallo ʼ27 hit his first career homerun in the fifth inning, but the Bison managed three hits total for the day against Wildcat pitching. Karp reached base in all three of his plate appearances with a single, a walk and getting hit by a pitch– for a team-leading 11th time this season.
The Bison have six more games left in their season, all of which are Patriot League matchups. The Orange and Blue host Army in a three-game series Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27.
