Sunday, May 15
Lewisburg, Pa.
11 a.m.
Bucknell University
7
vs
4
Lehigh (PL Semifinals)
Photo by: Marc Hagemeier
Lowery’s Grand Slam Powers Bucknell Baseball into Patriot League Championship Series
5/15/2022 3:50:00 PM | Baseball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Senior Brendan Lowery capped off a huge weekend with a go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the second-seeded Bucknell baseball team went on to defeat third-seeded Lehigh 7-4 and sweep the best-of-three Patriot League Tournament semifinal series on Sunday afternoon at Depew Field.
No active Bison player had ever appeared in a postseason game – they missed the tournament in 2019 and 2021 and the 2020 season was cut short by the pandemic – but Bucknell played with poise in clutch moments all weekend and will now advance to play top-seeded Army in the Patriot League Championship Series. Game 1 of the best-of-three final is slated for Tuesday, May 24 at West Point.
Bucknell (21-23) rallied from three different deficits to take the series opener from Lehigh (26-24) 10-8 on Saturday. In Game 2, Mountain Hawks lefty starter Matt Stamford (3-6) was cruising with a 3-0 lead into the sixth, but that lead vanished in a hurry.
Chris Cannizzaro singled to start the inning, and one out later lefties Jacob Corson and Tyler Dunn rapped singles to load the bases. Lowery, who drove in three runs with a pair of doubles in Game 1, drove Stamford's first pitch over the left-field wall for his fourth home run of the season and first career grand slam.
The five-run rally made a winning pitcher out of Austin Odell (7-2), who allowed three runs and five hits while striking out eight over six innings. Odell's seven wins are now tied for eighth-most in a season in Bucknell history.
Odell allowed two-run homer to Andrew Nole that gave Lehigh a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, but he retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced and left with the lead after throwing 120 pitches.
Graeme Carroll pitched two solid innings in relief, allowing just a single run on a Tyler Young eighth-inning double that made it a 5-4 game.
Bucknell tacked on two big insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Lowery worked a nine-pitch walk to start the inning, and then Kendall Pierson came up big off the bench for the second day in a row. His pinch-hit triple plated two big runs in Saturday's win, and this time he came off the bench and ripped a double to the wall in right-center to bring home Lowery. After a Kellerman single, Lyons displayed some tough two-strike hitting to deliver a sac fly off of Patriot League Player of the Year Casey Rother, and the Bison took a 7-4 lead to the ninth.
Andrew Funovits yielded a single to No. 9 hitter Chase Carlson leading off the ninth, but he retired the next three hitters, including Rother on a game-ending fly ball, to earn his fourth save of the season.
Bucknell out-hit Lehigh 13-8, with Kellerman, Dunn, and Grant Voytovich collecting two hits apiece. All 10 Bison who made a plate appearance collected at least one hit.
Lowery's seven-RBI weekend continued a sensational senior season that has elevated him to the ranks of one of the Patriot League's best and most-improved players. Lowery entered the year with a .150 career batting average and nine RBIs. But in 2022 he is hitting .278 with four homers, 26 RBIs, and a stellar .846 OPS. Last week he earned Second Team All-Patriot League and Academic All-Patriot League honors.
Bucknell will be making its first appearance in the Patriot League Championship Series since 2017. That year the Bison swept Navy in the semis before losing twice at Holy Cross, the latter in 11 innings. Bucknell's last league title came in 2014 at Depew Field, when it swept four straight games from Navy and Lehigh and then went on to win a game against Liberty in the NCAA Regionals in Charlottesville, Va.
Army is the No. 1 seed in this year's tournament, but Bucknell won the season series three games to two. The Bison swept a doubleheader from the Black Knights, 7-3 and 5-3 at Depew Field on March 26. Then Army took two of three at West Point on Apr. 30 and May 1. The Bison won 9-5 in game two of the Saturday doubleheader, but the Black Knights won the rubber match 6-5 with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday.
Army has won the last three Patriot League titles, coming in 2018, 2019, and 2021. The Black Knights advanced with a pair of routs of Holy Cross, 9-3 and 14-2, on Saturday.
Both teams' seniors will take part in graduation ceremonies next weekend before starting the title series on Tuesday at Doubleday Field. All three games will start at 1 p.m. and air on ESPN+.
Gallery: (5-15-2022) Baseball vs. Lehigh -- PL Semifinals G2
No active Bison player had ever appeared in a postseason game – they missed the tournament in 2019 and 2021 and the 2020 season was cut short by the pandemic – but Bucknell played with poise in clutch moments all weekend and will now advance to play top-seeded Army in the Patriot League Championship Series. Game 1 of the best-of-three final is slated for Tuesday, May 24 at West Point.
Bucknell (21-23) rallied from three different deficits to take the series opener from Lehigh (26-24) 10-8 on Saturday. In Game 2, Mountain Hawks lefty starter Matt Stamford (3-6) was cruising with a 3-0 lead into the sixth, but that lead vanished in a hurry.
Chris Cannizzaro singled to start the inning, and one out later lefties Jacob Corson and Tyler Dunn rapped singles to load the bases. Lowery, who drove in three runs with a pair of doubles in Game 1, drove Stamford's first pitch over the left-field wall for his fourth home run of the season and first career grand slam.
On repeat. @NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/wDWV2qZXxj
— Bucknell Baseball ⚾️ (@Bucknell_BB) May 15, 2022
The Bison weren't finished in the inning, as Logan Kellerman chased Stamford with a two-out single, Kyle Lyons singled off reliever Carlos Torres, and Anthony Sherwin knocked in Kellerman with Bucknell's seventh hit of the inning.Here's a look at the Lowery grand slam that flipped this game around. Lowery now has 7 RBIs in the series. And Bucknell just added another run on a Sherwin RBI single to go up 5-3! #rayBucknell
— Bucknell Baseball ⚾️ (@Bucknell_BB) May 15, 2022
Watch on ESPN+: https://t.co/nxayXY5Clo pic.twitter.com/yxOFnb5Jg2
The five-run rally made a winning pitcher out of Austin Odell (7-2), who allowed three runs and five hits while striking out eight over six innings. Odell's seven wins are now tied for eighth-most in a season in Bucknell history.
Odell allowed two-run homer to Andrew Nole that gave Lehigh a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, but he retired nine of the final 10 batters he faced and left with the lead after throwing 120 pitches.
Graeme Carroll pitched two solid innings in relief, allowing just a single run on a Tyler Young eighth-inning double that made it a 5-4 game.
Bucknell tacked on two big insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Lowery worked a nine-pitch walk to start the inning, and then Kendall Pierson came up big off the bench for the second day in a row. His pinch-hit triple plated two big runs in Saturday's win, and this time he came off the bench and ripped a double to the wall in right-center to bring home Lowery. After a Kellerman single, Lyons displayed some tough two-strike hitting to deliver a sac fly off of Patriot League Player of the Year Casey Rother, and the Bison took a 7-4 lead to the ninth.
Andrew Funovits yielded a single to No. 9 hitter Chase Carlson leading off the ninth, but he retired the next three hitters, including Rother on a game-ending fly ball, to earn his fourth save of the season.
Here's the final out as Bucknell finishes off the semifinal series sweep of Lehigh, as seen on @PatriotLeagueTV. Off to West Point to play for the title! #rayBucknell pic.twitter.com/cGosJpA3Da
— Bucknell Baseball ⚾️ (@Bucknell_BB) May 15, 2022
Bucknell out-hit Lehigh 13-8, with Kellerman, Dunn, and Grant Voytovich collecting two hits apiece. All 10 Bison who made a plate appearance collected at least one hit.
Lowery's seven-RBI weekend continued a sensational senior season that has elevated him to the ranks of one of the Patriot League's best and most-improved players. Lowery entered the year with a .150 career batting average and nine RBIs. But in 2022 he is hitting .278 with four homers, 26 RBIs, and a stellar .846 OPS. Last week he earned Second Team All-Patriot League and Academic All-Patriot League honors.
Bucknell will be making its first appearance in the Patriot League Championship Series since 2017. That year the Bison swept Navy in the semis before losing twice at Holy Cross, the latter in 11 innings. Bucknell's last league title came in 2014 at Depew Field, when it swept four straight games from Navy and Lehigh and then went on to win a game against Liberty in the NCAA Regionals in Charlottesville, Va.
Army is the No. 1 seed in this year's tournament, but Bucknell won the season series three games to two. The Bison swept a doubleheader from the Black Knights, 7-3 and 5-3 at Depew Field on March 26. Then Army took two of three at West Point on Apr. 30 and May 1. The Bison won 9-5 in game two of the Saturday doubleheader, but the Black Knights won the rubber match 6-5 with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday.
Army has won the last three Patriot League titles, coming in 2018, 2019, and 2021. The Black Knights advanced with a pair of routs of Holy Cross, 9-3 and 14-2, on Saturday.
Both teams' seniors will take part in graduation ceremonies next weekend before starting the title series on Tuesday at Doubleday Field. All three games will start at 1 p.m. and air on ESPN+.