Bison Baseball Team Hosts Lafayette Friday, Lehigh Sunday in Revised Weekend Schedule

Friday, March 24

Lewisburg, Pa.

12:30 p.m.

Bucknell University

Lafayette

Photo by: Bret Hindman

Bison Baseball Team Hosts Lafayette Friday, Lehigh Sunday in Revised Weekend Schedule

3/23/2023 10:35:00 PM | Baseball

Lafayette (3-17, 0-0 PL) at Bucknell (8-11, 2-2 PL)
When: Friday, March 24, 12:30 p.m. (DH)
Where: Depew Field, Lewisburg, Pa.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Lehigh (11-9, 0-0 PL) at Bucknell (8-11, 2-2 PL)
When: Sunday, March 26, 12 p.m. (DH)
Where: Depew Field, Lewisburg, Pa.
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison have captured six of their last eight games heading into a key four-game Patriot League weekend against the two Lehigh Valley teams at Depew Field. With inclement weather in the forecast for Saturday, the doubleheader with Lafayette has been moved up a day and will now take place on Friday, starting at 12:30. Sunday's twin bill against Lehigh remains on as scheduled.
Bucknell began Patriot League play last weekend and split a four-game series with Navy in Annapolis. The Bison dropped two close games, 8-6 and 7-6, to start the series before bouncing back to win 17-4 and 6-3.
Bucknell made it three straight victories with a 4-3 non-lead win over Villanova on Tuesday at Depew Field. The Wildcats led 2-0 just two batters into the game thanks to a Cameron Hassert home run, but the Bison fought back. Sean Keys homered, Kyle Lyons tied the game with a sac fly, and Jacob Corson scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh. Henry Novicki made his first appearance of the season on the mound and worked a scoreless inning to earn his first career win. Ryan Osinski retired Villanova in order in the ninth for his second save.
The Bison have been the kings of the comeback this season. They have trailed in seven of their eight wins.
Shortstop Anthony Sherwin was the offensive star of the Navy series. He went 8-for-15 (.533) at the plate with four doubles, eight RBIs, and six runs scored. In game two of Saturday's doubleheader, he went 4-for-4 with a career-high six RBIs, and in Sunday's series finale he drove in the go-ahead run with a double in the fifth inning.
Sherwin, who is now hitting .389 on the season, was named Patriot League Player of the Week and Bison Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
Kyle Lyons also went 8-for-15 in the Navy series, giving the Bison a big lift out of the No. 9 spot in the lineup. Tyler Dunn and Corson both had five hits in the series, while Billy Kender and Keys had four each as the offense hit .331 off Navy pitching.
Corson and Keys both homered in the Navy series. Keys' third home run of the year was a titanic blast pulled down the right-field line, and then he belted his team-leading fourth homer of the season against Villanova. Corson and Grant Voytovich have three home runs apiece.
Sherwin would be No. 2 in the Patriot League batting race but does not yet have enough plate appearances to qualify after missing nine games with an injury early in the season. Lyons is Bucknell's top qualifier at .323, which is 10th-best in the league.
Corson continues to lead the league in walks (18) and hit-by-pitches (7), and he ranks third in the league in on-base percentage (.482).
Righthanders Will Greer and Tyler O'Neill, and lefties Chris DiFiore and Ben Magovern have been Bucknell's top four starting pitchers all season. Magovern is coming off a strong game in the 6-3 win at Navy on Sunday. Some shaky defense led to a three-run first inning, but Magovern hung six straight zeroes before handing it over to Nick Mulvey for the save.

Lafayette at a Glance/Series History

The Leopards are looking for a fresh start as they begin Patriot League play on Friday. Lafayette, which has still yet to play a home game, comes in with a 3-17 record and a nine-game losing streak.
Lafayette split a four-game series at High Point and also has a win against Davidson. Most recently, the Leopards fell 13-8 at Rutgers on Wednesday.
The Leopards have been solid offensively, averaging 5.1 runs per game while ranking second in the Patriot League with 21 home runs.
Senior Pete Ciuffreda already has three two-homer games and leads the league with eight on the season. A two-time Second Team All-Patriot League outfielder, Ciuffreda went deep four times in a two-game span at High Point.
Michael Zarrillo leads the team with a .293 average. Ciuffreda and Seif Ingram share the team lead with 15 RBIs.
The Bison will have to be mindful of Lafayette's running game, as the Leopards lead the league with 29 stolen bases.
Lafayette has struggled on the mound with a 9.70 team ERA. Senior Alex Walsh has been a bright spot with a 1-1 record, a 4.22 ERA, and 24 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched.
Lafayette has a 122-81-1 record in 204 all-time meetings dating back to 1895.
Bucknell won three of the five meetings last season. The two teams split a doubleheader in Easton, and the Bison won two of three at Depew Field later in the season.

Lehigh at a Glance/Series History

Lehigh is 11-9 overall and will play their first Patriot League games of the season on Saturday at Navy before heading to Lewisburg.
The Mountain Hawks won two of three at home against Saint Peter's last weekend, then fell 7-4 in 10 innings to Penn on Wednesday.
Led by All-Patriot League outfielder Casey Rother, Lehigh has shown the league's best offense thus far. The Mountain Hawks lead the league in team batting average (.298), runs (160), hits (219), home runs (23), doubles (44), triples (6), on-base percentage (.389), and slugging percentage (.469).
Rother, a fifth-year graduate student, was the 2021 and 2022 Patriot League Player of the Year. He led the league in six offensive categories last season, including batting average (.371), slugging percentage (.613), hits (72), doubles (18), total bases (119) and RBIs (48), while finishing second in home runs (9). This season he is hitting .321 with six homers and seven doubles. Rother also comes in as a late-inning relief pitcher, and he has two saves in five appearances this season.
Andrew Kohl leads the squad with a .351 average and seven home runs, while Tyler Young is hitting .339, Rafe Perich .318, and Joe Gorla .302.
Lefthanded starter Luke Rettig is another fifth-year grad student who earned First Team All-Patriot League honors last season. Rettig is off to a terrific start in 2023 with a 4-0 record and a 1.21 ERA in five appearances. He has 27 strikeouts and only seven walks in 22.1 innings pitched. He pitched six innings of two-hit shutout ball against Saint Peter's in his last start.
Bucknell and Lehigh first met in 1901, and the Bison hold a 110-98 lead in the all-time series.
These two teams met seven times last season. Lehigh won three of the five regular-season clashes, although Bucknell's wins came by 14-8 and 20-3 scorelines. The Bison then hosted the Mountain Haws in a best 2-of-3 Patriot League Tournament semifinal series and earned a sweep with 10-8 and 7-4 wins.
Brendan Lowery doubled twice and drove in three runs, Anthony Sherwin hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, and Chris Cannizzaro smashed a two-run homer coming out of a lightning delay to power the Bison in game one of the series. Tyler O'Neill pitched four strong innings in relief to earn the win.
Lowery hit a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the sixth to send the Bison to the game-two win and the series sweep.