Corson’s Ninth-Inning Homer Lifts Baseball Squad to 8-7 Win at Lehigh

Sunday, April 23

Bethlehem, Pa.

1 p.m.

Bucknell University

18-21, 11-11

Lehigh

19-22, 6-12

Bucknell

Lehigh

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Corson’s Ninth-Inning Homer Lifts Baseball Squad to 8-7 Win at Lehigh

4/23/2023 5:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Bucknell baseball team on Sunday wrote one more chapter in a season already loaded with wild, dramatic victories. Down 7-5 at Lehigh with two on but two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Jacob Corson hit a go-ahead three-run homer, and then Ryan Osinski stranded the tying and winning runs in scoring position with a little help from second-baseman Billy Kender in the bottom of the ninth to seal an 8-7 win at Walker Field.

Bucknell took two of three in the weekend series after the Mountain Hawks completed a 10-4 win in the resumption of a suspended game earlier in the day, and at 11-11 in Patriot League play the Bison pulled within one game of second-place Navy.

The Bison went 4-1 in the season series against Lehigh (19-22, 6-12 PL), and three of those wins featured dramatic home runs in the late innings. On March 26 at Depew Field, Sean Keys hit a walk-off three-run homer off closer Casey Rother with the Bison trailing by one and down to their final out. In Saturday's series opener in Bethlehem, Bucknell trailed 6-4 entering the sixth in a seven-inning game, when Grant Voytovich belted a go-ahead grand slam in what became an 8-7 win.

This time around the Bison trailed 7-3 after six innings, got two important runs back in the seventh, and then went ahead in the ninth. Kyle Lyons started the winning rally with a base hit. Voytovich walked, setting up a Rother vs. Keys rematch. This time Rother won the battle as Keys flied to right for the second out, but Corson followed with a blast over the right-field wall.

Osinski, who escaped a jam in the final inning on Saturday, did it again here for his sixth save of the season. Rafe Perich led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Osinksi retired Joe Gorla on a fly ball, but pinch-hitter Riley Davis drew a walk to put the winning run on base. Gerard Sweeney grounded out to first to move both runners into scoring position, but Justin Butler's line drive was snared by a diving Kender at second for the final out.

Nick Mulvey (2-0) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief. His biggest out ended the eighth, when he got Rother, the two-time Patriot League Player of the Year, to fly out with the bases loaded and keep it a 7-5 game. Rother is the league leader in home runs and runs batted in.

Anthony Sherwin went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a triple to lead Bucknell's 10-hit attack. Voytovich, who had a career-high seven RBIs in the series opener a day earlier, logged two hits and drove in three more runs in this one.

Gorla and Butler had two hits each for the Mountain Hawks, and Sweeney hit the team's seventh home run of the weekend in the fourth inning.

Bucknell trailed 6-3 in the top of the seventh when Saturday's second game was halted due to weather. Corson drove in a run shortly after the resumption of play on Sunday, but Lehigh scored three in the bottom of the seventh and one more in the eighth to polish off the 10-4 verdict. The Bison were held to five hits in that game, including two by Kender.

The Bison travel to Philadelphia on Wednesday for a non-league game at Saint Joseph's and then wrap up Patriot League play with a three-game set against Holy Cross at Depew Field on Saturday and Sunday.