Keys’ Dramatic Walk-Off Homer Headlines Baseball’s Sweep of Lehigh

Sunday, March 26

Lewisburg, Pa.

12 p.m.

Bucknell University

11-11, 0

Lehigh

11-12, 0

Lehigh

Bucknell

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Keys’ Dramatic Walk-Off Homer Headlines Baseball’s Sweep of Lehigh

3/26/2023 7:42:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell baseball team has had a knack for the dramatic in recent weeks, and the Bison came from behind twice more on Sunday on the way to a doubleheader sweep of Lehigh that extended their winning streak to seven straight games. Sean Keys blasted a 463-foot, three-run walk-off home run in a 6-4 victory in game one, and then in the nightcap an eight-run second inning propelled Bucknell to a 16-6 win that ended after seven innings on the 10-run rule.

Reliever Theo Farynick was the winning pitcher in both games of the doubleheader -- the first two wins of his career -- and Bucknell piled up 22 more runs after scoring 31 in Friday's sweep of Lafayette. Now 12-11 overall and 6-2 in Patriot League play, the Bison have scored 88 runs in eight league games.

The seven-game winning streak is Bucknell's longest since an eight-game run by the 2014 Patriot League championship team. The Bison have won 10 of their last 12 games, and nine of their 12 wins on the season have come after trailing in the game.

That was the case in both of Sunday's games, as Bucknell fell behind 3-0 in the seven-inning opener, rallied to tie it with three runs in the fifth, fell behind again in the seventh, and then won it on Keys' bomb with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Lehigh (11-13, 0-4 PL) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game two, but the Bison quickly answered with three in the bottom of the first and eight more in the second.

Bucknell will now embark on an eight-game road swing, starting with Patriot League doubleheaders against Army and Holy Cross next weekend.

Bucknell 6, Lehigh 4 – Game 1

Game one started out as a good pitcher's duel between Bucknell's Tyler O'Neill and Lehigh's Alex Bouchard. It was scoreless through three before both righthanders ran into some trouble in the middle innings.

Lehigh was the first to strike in the fourth, and the rally started innocently with a hit batsman with two outs and nobody on. But Andrew Nole and Andrew Kohl followed with back-to-back doubles to make it 2-0. The Mountain Hawks added another two-out run on Rafe Perich's run-scoring single in the fifth before the Bison finally got to Bouchard in the bottom half.

Chris Klein, who had two hits in the game and three on the day, ripped a double to the wall in right-center to start Bucknell's three-run rally in the fifth. Jake Wortman walked, and then Kyle Lyons rapped a single up the middle to score Klein. After another walk, Jacob Corson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Grant Voytovich tied it with a ground ball.

Nine-hole hitter Ryan Cochran singled to start the seventh for Lehigh. He moved up on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Perich's double into the left-field corner. Farynick came out of the bullpen with two on and two outs and quickly got a three-pitch strikeout to keep Bucknell's deficit at one.

Shortstop Tyler Young made a terrific play up the middle to rob Anthony Sherwin leading off the seventh, but Jacob Corson followed with a walk and Lehigh went to closer Casey Rother, who moved to the mound from first base. Rother fanned Voytovich for the second out, then walked Dunn on four pitches. Keys fouled off one 3-2 pitch before crushing the seventh pitch of the at-bat deep over the wall in right. TrackMan measured the shot at 463 feet with an exit velocity of 109 mph.

Keys' team-leading fifth home run of the season delivered the first career win for Farynick, a senior who has pitched very well this season after missing all of 2022 with an injury.

Bucknell 16, Lehigh 6 (7 innings) – Game 2

Tyler Dunn went 3-for-3 with three extra-base hits and a career-high six RBIs to send the Bison to the game-two rout. Nic Adamo belted his first career home run as part of an eight-run second inning, and he and Sherwin both had two-hit games in Bucknell's 12-hit attack.

While the bats were slow to get going in the opener, such was not the case in the nightcap as 16 runs crossed the plate in the first two innings alone.

Lehigh scored four unearned runs in the top of the first, the last three coming with two outs thanks to a two-run single from Young and an RBI knock by Dom Patrizi. But the Bison immediately responded in the bottom of the first. Sherwin led off with a single, Voytovich walked with one out, and Dunn scored them both with a triple up the left-center alley. Billy Kender beat out a double-play ball to score Dunn to make it a 4-3 game.

Lehigh added a run in the second, and then Bucknell flipped the game around by sending 11 men to the plate in an eight-run, six-hit second inning. Adamo had two of the hits in the outburst, starting it off with a single up the middle. With two outs and the bases loaded, Dunn doubled into the right-center gap to score all three runs and give the Bison a 6-5 lead. Keys followed with a base hit to plate Dunn, and after an error kept the rally alive, Klein drove in two more with a double and Adamo followed with a blast off the batter's eye in straightaway center to make it 11-5.

Farynick entered in the fifth and stranded two runners, and then the Bison really broke it open with four more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Corson, Voytovich, and Mason Kelly all walked with the bases loaded, and Dunn drove in his sixth run of the game with a sac fly.

Leading 15-6 going to the bottom of the seventh, Dunn was hit by a pitch and came around to score on Kender's triple to deep right-center, invoking the 10-run rule.

Bison starter Ben Magovern allowed six runs in four innings, but only one run was earned. Farynick tossed two shutout innings for his second win of the day, and Nick Mulvey also worked a scoreless inning in the victory.

Rother and Patrizi had two hits each for Lehigh, which tallied eight hits in the game. Ben Christian took the loss after allowing six runs in 1.2 innings.