Offense Powers Army to Game One Win at Lehigh

Saturday, April 13

Bethlehem, Pa.

12 PM

Army West Point

19-23, 5-5

Lehigh

14-22, 4-6

Army

Lehigh

Offense Powers Army to Game One Win at Lehigh

April 13, 2019 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Army West Point softball team earned a convincing 11-3 victory in the series opener at Lehigh before dropping a hard-fought 4-3 decision in the night cap to force a split in the series-opening doubleheader on Saturday.

The Black Knights accumulated 24 hits on the afternoon, led by rookie Jolie Duong, sophomore Taylor Drayton and seniors Ashley Yoo and Carrie Reilly with four apiece. Yoo recorded a pair of doubles, while Reilly notched her team-leading third triple of the year. Duong drove in a team-high four runs and Drayton scored four times.

In the circle, junior Macey Newbary was superb in game one as she allowed just three hits in 6.1 innings of relief while walking one and striking out three.

GAME 1: Army 11, Lehigh 3
HOW IT HAPPENED

Lehigh opened the scoring with a three-spot in the first inning.
Addie Kittel scored two on a double to right center to hand the Mountain Hawks the lead.
Jen Stoll later scored in the opening frame on a bases-loaded fielder's choice to make it 3-0.
Yoo singled in Carrie Reilly with two outs of the second inning to cut into the deficit.
In the third inning, Drayton drove a double to the left-center gap to score Grace Mattimore from first and trim the Lehigh lead to one.
Duong followed that up with a two-run single that scored Reilly and Drayton give Army its first lead of the afternoon at 4-3.
Reilly added an insurance run in the fifth inning when she plated Drayton to push the visitor's lead to 5-3.
The Black Knights continued the offensive display with a game-high four runs in the sixth inning to break the game open.
The rally started with a two-out walk by Mattimore before pinch-runner Tessa Leman scored on a double by Snelling.
Reilly tripled over the head of Lehigh's right fielder to plate two more Cadets before she scored on a Jolie Duong single.
Newbary saw her streak of consecutive batters retired halted at 14 in the sixth inning, but her dominance in the circle was crucial for the team's success throughout the game.
Snelling sealed the victory with a two-run single in the seventh to plate Ballesteros and Yoo.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

Army scored 10 or more runs against Lehigh for the fifth time in series history and most since 2000.
The Black Knights recorded a season-high 18 hits, their most in a single game since a 21-hit performance on April 14 last season against UMass Lowell.
The Cadets earned their first win in the series opener at Lehigh since 2015.
Reilly documented her sixth multi-hit game of the season and 20th of her career.
The Riverside, Ill., native accumulated a career-high four hits in the game.
She legged out her third triple of the season, tying Bucknel's Ryanne Rokos and Allyse Volpe for the Patriot League lead.
Reilly drove in the 40th run of her career with a season-high three-RBI showing.
Yoo, Ballesteros, Snelling and Reilly tallied their 35th base hits of the season.
Yoo added her team-leading 13th multi-hit effort and third three-hit game of the year.
Ballesteros extended her current hitting streak to 10 games.
Newbary earned her personal-best seventh win of the year.
The Missoula, Mont., native struck out her 40th batter of the season.
Snelling logged her 11th multi-hit game of the year and 18th in her career.
The Las Vegas, Nev., native contributed her team-leading fourth three-hit effort.
She drove in her 30th RBI of the season and leads the squad with eight multi-RBI games.
Mattimore collected her 15th base hit of the season.
The Ashburn, Va., native scored her 10th career run.
Drayton drilled her fifth double of the year.
The Clayton, N.C., native became the first Cadet with 20 runs scored on the season.
Duong posted the fifth multi-hit and third multi-RBI game of her rookie campaign.
The Houston, Texas, native collected her 10th RBI and 10th stolen base of the season.
All nine starters recorded a hit in the game.

GAME 2: Lehigh 4, Army 3
HOW IT HAPPENED

The Black Knights keep up the offensive surge as Yoo led off with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Ballesteros.
Ballseteros drove in her second RBI of the game with a single in the third inning which plated Livingston and pushed the visitor's advantage to 2-0.
Kittel drew the Mountain Hawks even in the home half of the inning with a two-run double down the left field line.
Duong responded for the Black Knights in the next frame with a two-out RBI single that plated Drayton from second as Army recaptured the lead, 3-2.
Lehigh answered in the home half, however, to retie the game with an RBI single from Carley Barjaktarovich.
The home side walked off for the win in the seventh inning when Jaelynn Chesson plated Ashley Rabago with a double.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

Yoo sprinted to her fifth double of the season and the 15th two-bagger of her career.
The Yorba Linda, Calif., native scored her 20th run of the season.
Ballesteros documented her first multi-RBI game of the year.
Drayton added her seventh multi-hit effort of the season.
The Clayton, N.C., native stole her 10th base with her second multi-steal game of the year.
Duong collected her sixth multi-hit game of the year.
The Houston, Texas, native tallied her 12th complete game.

COACH'S CORNER

Interim head coach Bob Beretta - "I was extremely pleased with how we executed offensively and defensively in the first game. We battled back from an early deficit, took the lead and continued to extend throughout. We did a tremendous job of playing offense. In fact, I thought it was our best offensive game of the year. We had multiple players with clutch, two-out RBI hits. I think we scored nine of our 11 runs with two outs. Those are back breakers for the defense, and we kept coming through in critical situations. Ally Snelling had four two-out RBIs on her own. You win a lot of ball games with that type of production.
"None of that was possible without the shutdown performance of Macey Newbary in the circle. She came in the game in a tough spot and settled things down immediately. In essence, she pitched seven shutout innings and gave our offense a chance to work. I can't speak highly enough about the effort she gave us. That cannot get lost in the equation.
"The second game was a microcosm of our entire season. We were just a play or two away on either side of the ball from turning that outcome. I think that was our eighth loss by one run and our 16th loss by two runs or fewer. It's very disappointing because the margin between winning and losing for us has been very slim. If we make one or two more plays on offense or defense in those 16 games, our record would look very different.
"At the end of the day, it came down to the seventh inning, and Lehigh executed its offense better in its turn at bat than we did. Both tams had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs. We were not able to capitalize on that and push a run across and Lehigh did. We had other chances to make plays earlier in the game but just didn't get it done and we fell just short. We will keep grinding and learn from today's performance. Hopefully, we come out strong tomorrow and pull out a series victory. It shapes up as an extremely important ball game for both teams.

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