Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Junior John Mentzer went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, but the Lebanon Valley College baseball team dropped a 16-9 decision to a hot-hitting Ursinus College squad in a non-conference tilt Wednesday afternoon.
Lebanon Valley (1-11) led 6-3 before the Bears exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the fourth. Ursinus tacked on three more runs in the fifth to build an insurmountable 14-6 advantage.
Ursinus (10-5) out-hit the Flying Dutchmen 20-10. LVC committed four errors, leading to seven unearned runs.
Senior Dan Kelly was also 2-for-4 at the dish for the Valley. Four different Ursinus players had three hits, and No. 7 hitter Mike Ziemak went 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
Lebanon Valley jumped on Bear starter Steve Morrison with four runs on four hits in the top of the first, when the Dutchmen batted around. Mentzer drove in his first run with a bases-loaded single before sophomore Brandon Stoothoff drilled a two-run double down the leftfield line. Freshman Grant Wiest capped the big inning with a sacrifice fly. The Dutchmen were poised to cause even more damage, but Morrison induced an inning-ending, bases-loaded groundout to himself.
After the Bears scored once in the second against LVC starter Charley Kline, the Dutchmen pushed across two more runs in the third to assume a 6-1 advantage. Stoothoff reached on a strike-three passed ball leading off before Wiest chased him home with a triple. Freshman Joe Soupik followed up with an RBI groundout.
Morrison settled in after that, however, blanking LVC in the fourth and the fifth.
Ursinus broke through in the fourth, sending 12 batters to the plate. Kline recorded a groundout to start the inning before six straight Bears reached base, scoring three runs to tie the game. Junior left-hander Andrew Pipkin was then summoned out of the bullpen with the bases loaded, and an error made it 7-6. Ursinus then recorded in succession an RBI-groundout, a two-run single, and a one-run double to complete its big inning, going up 11-6.
The Bears’ offensive fireworks continued in the fifth, when they scored three times on six hits. Freshman lefty Devin Schneider came out of the pen and induced a groundout to end the inning.
Schneider was nearly perfect in his 2 1/3 innings of relief, allowing only one baserunner due to an error.
Lebanon Valley made it a five-run game (14-9) with a three-run eighth, when junior Corey Lamoureux drove in a run with a single and Mentzer knocked in two more with a single of his own.
Freshman Andrew Hobbins worked the eighth inning on the mound for LVC, yielding two runs on four hits.
Morrison (1-0) earned the win for Ursinus despite allowing six runs on seven hits through five innings. Kline (0-2) was charged with the loss.
Lebanon Valley returns to Commonwealth Conference action on Friday, when it hosts Messiah College at 3 p.m. in the Dutchmen’s home opener.
[Photo - Junior John Mentzer]
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